A new bar is set to open at Chester's Watergate House this month, marking Brunning & Price's third attempt at the site.

Opening on Friday 13 March, Basement 85 has been described as a relaxed underground bar. The Grade II listed Georgian property, located on Lower Watergate Street, has housed several businesses in recent years - including Fat Cat, Big Hand and most recently, The Henry Potts under Brunning's Pubs Ltd.

"This will be our third attempt with the basement," said Jerry Brunning, founder of the Brunning & Price pub group.

The hospitality veteran, acknowledged that previous models in the basement, including his own earlier attempt, may not have fully aligned with the realities of operating a large-scale pub underground in the city centre.

The Henry Potts pub opened in June 2022 and closed two years later (Image via: Christie & Co, Pubs & Restaurants)

He added: "It was essentially a country pub squeezed into a city basement. I realise I was trying to recreate something that had worked elsewhere, rather than listening to what this particular space required."

Rather than being a food-led, full-scale city pub, Basement 85 will operate as a relaxed, intimate drinking venue centred around cocktails, craft beers, elegant wines and deli-style sharing platters.

For Brunning, the key difference this time is leadership. Ethan Evans and Lillian Gorman, both in their early twenties and rising talents within the group, will lead the venture - bringing what Brunning describes as "a generational understanding of how people want to meet and socialise now."

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Ethan said: "There's a real energy in Chester again. Offices are busy, people are staying in the city after work, and there's room for somewhere that feels intimate and grown-up without being formal.

"Basement 85 will be about atmosphere - great drinks, sharing plates and a space that naturally brings people together."

Lily added: "It's not about recreating what's been here before. It's about creating something that fits how people socialise today.

The restaurant served a range of meat and vegetarian dishes, using ingredients selected from local farms (Nub News)

"We want it to feel welcoming, relaxed and somewhere you can spend the whole evening - whether that's after work on a Thursday or meeting friends at the weekend."

The building's previous venture, The Sandbar Restaurant, "closed indefinitely" just months after its launch by the owner of Chester Market's Sandbar Seafood Shack, Martin Taylor.

Specialising in "great seafood", the restaurant served a range of meat and vegetarian dishes, using ingredients selected from local farms "for quality and taste".

Before that, the building was home to the Henry Potts pub, which opened in June 2022 and closed just over two years later.

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At the time, pub boss Jeremy Brunning had cited more people working-from-home and "ridiculous electricity bills" as the culprits behind the low trade output. 

Watergate House's new bar Basement85 will open on Friday 13 March. You can find out more here.