Two brothers who found music fame in North Yorkshire are to open a bar and restaurant in York, including a rock ‘n’ roll barbecue menu.
George and Jimmy Craig, originally from Helmsley, are to open Jimmy’s in the old Café Rouge building in Low Petergate. They already have branches in Manchester and Liverpool and said the chance to open in York was too good to turn down.
The company has been teasing its York plans on social media without disclosing the location, but that has now been revealed in a licensing application to the city council.
The original Jimmy’s in Manchester is a live music venue, but the York one will be a bar and restaurant with a beer garden, with music from a juke box.
George and Jimmy set up One Night Only when they were teenagers in Helmsley in the early 2000s, and frequently performed around York.
Their second single, Just For Tonight, reached number 9 in the UK charts.
A pub for music lovers
George told YorkMix: “York is our home city as a family. My brother and I carved out our music careers from York; Fibbers in the early Noughties was such a big deal for us.
“We grew up in Helmsley and York is our home city, and the vision is to add something that we feel is truly missing, right down to the food and drink and music.
“It will be a pub for music, food and drink lovers, right in the centre of the city.”
The brothers moved to Manchester to open their first venue in 2016, then added another in Liverpool just over a year ago.
The exact opening date in York has yet to be decided, depending on Covid restrictions. They expect to create up to 15 jobs, and say they will also work with local musicians, artists, poets and other creative people and groups for events and joint projects.
George said opening in York had not specifically been on their radar until last year, but said: “We are always on the look-out for opportunities and this fell into our hands and it was something we could not miss out on.”
He said the building was pretty much ready to go, and a small team has been working on getting it ready.
He said: “The building rings true with what is great about York – it is a quirky building with a lot of character and we are really going to play to that.”