First look at Sunderland's first 'beach' beer garden ahead of Saturday, July 4 opening

Sunderland’s only inland ‘beach’ is opening at a city pub this weekend.
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Like many pubs and bars across Wearside, The Palm will be welcoming drinkers for the first time in three months on July 4, on a day dubbed Super Saturday.

The necessary safety measures have been put in place, including more space between tables, contact details taken for all patrons, masks for staff and disposable menus, however, there’s also something a little different – a beach beer garden complete with deckchairs and sand.

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An underused storage area to the side of the Hylton Riverside site has been installed with an outdoor bar and sand pit with additional seating.

A sneak peek at The Palm BeachA sneak peek at The Palm Beach
A sneak peek at The Palm Beach

With social distancing in place, it will hold 64 people, the equivalent to 200 people without social distancing.

Duty manager Steph Addison said: “At first we were just going to do a beer garden with this area, but everyone is doing that and we decided we wanted to do something completely different. A beach really fits in with The Palm too.

“We haven’t put any images on social media yet, just some teaser posts but there’s been a lot of interest. We went through all the guidelines before putting our online booking system live as we didn’t want to offer something we couldn’t deliver. But we booked up pretty quickly after that and it’s allowed us to take everyone’s details for track and trace.”

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Tropicuba and Wildernest at The Palm are fully booked for table service tomorrow, July 4, with limited availability upstairs at Liberty Brown. Walk ups will be able to use the new Beach at The Palm and outdoor terrace at Liberty Brown, however.

The Palm new social distancing man made beach.The Palm new social distancing man made beach.
The Palm new social distancing man made beach.

Diners can also look forward to a new menu, with 20in pizzas, a large range of loaded fries including options loaded with rump steak, parmesan and truffle oil and another loaded with crispy chicken and katsu curry mayo, as well as a bumper cheesy chips dish.

Some pubs in Sunderland have decided to delay opening tomorrow, including The Rabbit, ttonic and Chaplins. Others, however, will be open including 808 Bar & Kitchen, The Saltgrass, Poetic License, Hidden and Sinatra’s.

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The Palm duty manager Steph Addison on a giant deckchair ahead of the opening of the man made beachThe Palm duty manager Steph Addison on a giant deckchair ahead of the opening of the man made beach
The Palm duty manager Steph Addison on a giant deckchair ahead of the opening of the man made beach

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The Liberty Brown terrace has great views over Northern SpireThe Liberty Brown terrace has great views over Northern Spire
The Liberty Brown terrace has great views over Northern Spire

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