“Sunderland being in the Premier League has been a huge boost so far and we’re aiming to build on that,” say the new business partners who’ve taken over a city centre bar.

A trio of business partners, Xander Boal, Robert Ruttley and Germaine Mcnay, have taken over The Emporium in Vine Place.

New management Xander Boal, Germaine Mcnay and Robert Ruttley | Submitted

placeholder image — New management Xander Boal, Germaine Mcnay and Robert Ruttley | Submitted

All have years of experience in hospitality and events in the city and are aiming to build on the offering at the bar, which has been running in Sunderland for the past few years.

“We’re all familiar with the bar and are keeping what works well here as well as building the offering,” said Xander.

“It’s really picked up a following in the past year, it’s got a good daytime trade and really picks up on a night,” said Xander. “It’s always been a solid bar but being in the Premier League has definitely been a boost.”

The Emporium on Vine Place has new ownership and pie shop, Pied has relocated into the premises. | Sunderland Echo

Robert said: “Match days have proved really popular. We have booths at the front which you can book and I think they’re all fully booked for match days until Christmas.”

Part of the new offering includes the addition of Pied pie shop, which has relocated from Roker to the city centre bar.

Chris Paterson, owner of Pied, said it’s meant he could improve the pie offering as he now has a kitchen on site as well as people being able to sit in, or grab pies to go.

Pied pie shop founder Chris Paterson has relocated into The Emporium on Vine Place. | Sunderland Echo

“I’ve only been at Emporium two and a half weeks, but have already had quite a lot of customers from Roker come in, as well as customers from when I had the Victoria Gardens,” he said.

As part of the match day offering, you can pick up a pie meal deal and a pint for £10, which includes any pint from the bar excluding Guinness, Cruzcampo and Madri.

“It’s great having a city centre location. We’ve only had two match days so far, but both were brilliant, as well as doing pop ups at 7even round the corner,” said Chris.

Pies are priced £3.50 and include at least four regular flavours: 18hr beef brisket, mince pie, a special and a veggie option.

You can also pick up sides, meal deals, spuds and loaded spuds.

Inside the bar in Vine Place | Sunderland Echo

Xander said: “We already had a kitchen but it hadn’t been used for around a year so it made total sense to have Chris come on board.”

Other regular offerings at the bar include karaoke every day except Saturdays and cocktail classes.

A few months ago, the bar also teamed up with Age UK for daytime discos which run on Tuesday afternoons from 1pm to 4pm.

Elsewhere in Vine Place, work is forging ahead on the former Aphrodite building, which has been bought by AutismAble. Upstairs will be a base for their services supporting neurodiverse people while downstairs will house a new coffee shop and pre-loved clothes shop called Wear.

*Emporium, Vine Place, is open seven days a week from 12pm to late.