Abergavenny residents looking to seek a different drinking experience are in for a treat after a new cocktail bar opened its doors for the first time at the weekend.

The Balcony Bar on Lewis’ Lane - dubbed Abergavenny’s first micro-cocktail bar - is a new business venture by Ben Ward who is from Abergavenny and runs the Beer Box Company, a mobile drinks hospitality business specialising in weddings and other events.

The bar opened for the first time on Saturday March 5 for a private event and is now open for public bookings.

Having worked in the wedding and drinks hospitality industry in the past, Ben started the Beer Box as a fully-stocked and fully refrigerated horse box bar open to hire for weddings and other events.

Originally opting to use the mobile bar as a part-time venture for weddings and special events to go alongside his permanent job as a Victim Focus Officer for South Wales Victim Focus, Ben decided to take the plunge and leave his job and officially launch the Beer Box Company in May 2020.

Setting up a new business is a stressful enough task but Ben also had to deal with the challenge of launching a new business during a health pandemic, with the outbreak of Coronavirus in Spring 2020 having an especially detrimental impact on the hospitality industry.

Speaking about opening his business during a pandemic, Ben said: “It was obviously a very challenging and stressful time.

“Having gradually built the business up from 2018, I found that the business was becoming more and more popular and in demand so decided to put my sole focus into launching the Beer Box Company.

“Unfortunately however due to Covid, we had around 15 weddings we were booked up for cancelled.”

Needing to branch the business out, Ben shifted his business model to into a cocktail delivery service shipping drinks across South Wales and beyond.

The model proved so successful that Ben has now decided to open his own specialist cocktail bar.

After learning that friend James Falconer, who owns his own independent clothing store Viva Ut Vivas on Lewis’ Lane had space available his shop, Ben jumped at the chance to use the facilities for the Balcony Bar.

To begin with the bar will be open on Friday and Saturday evenings from 5pm to 11pm, and is booking only through the Beer Box website.

Bookings are for two hours with three sperate time slots with the bar able to seat 20 people per booking, with Ben working on the bar alongside a small team of staff who also work for the Beer Box Company.

The Balcony bar will also be available to book for private parties and functions throughout the week, including special cocktail classes run by Ben himself.

In the future he hopes to expand the business into opening on Sundays and plans to have outdoor seating along with food and music available in the summer months.

Speaking about his new venture, Ben said: “I wanted to provide something a bit more exclusive and different from other drinks hospitality businesses in the area and felt there was a real gap in the market in Abergavenny.”

The bar is already proving to be in strong demand for locals with over 350 people booked in, with bookings right up until August of this year.

Ben added: “The feedback and support I’ve had from local people so far has been great and hopefully that continues. It’s a bit quirky and niche and hopefully has the potential to expand into something very popular in the area.”

For more information on the Balcony Bar and to book please visit https://www.thebeerboxcompany.co.uk/