Inizio hair salon and Not My Monkey coffee shop and wine bar on The Wharf, Newark celebrate one year of business
A quirky combination of a wine bar and hair salon is celebrating one year of business today (February 3).
Not My Monkey coffee shop and wine lounge and Inizio hair salon, opened at The Wharf on February 3, 2023.
The hair salon was in Stodman Street, Newark for 13 years before it moved into its new premises.
The brand which was inspired by London and modern cities, aimed to bring something different to Newark.
A year later, the owner Kevin Guthrie, who created the businesses together with his partner Les Jones, are hosting an event to celebrate the date.
“The business is going better than what we expected, we have been more popular than we might have anticipated, it feels like we have brought something to Newark that was needed and people are really buying into it.
“People love what we do and the thing about why we do what we do, why we deliver the menus and everything, it is based on our personal tastes and what we thought was missing of hospitality, not only in Newark but in general, we tried to fill in the gaps.”
The event taking place at Not My Monkey premises tomorrow, starts at 6pm, with two live acts entertaining throughout the evening.
A duo offering a mixture of jazz and swing is set to perform at 6.30pm and at 9pm Rachael Calladine will treat customers and visitors to some soul, disco and house tunes.
The kitchen will close for normal menu orders at 5pm as there will be light bites and nibbles available as a thank you.
“I would like to say an absolute massive thank you to people for believing in us, for supporting us.
“It is the belief when you deliver something and people go mad over it or they love it and compliment you on it, it’s just the absolute shower of compliments that we get from people all the time, it is amazing.
“Some of the reviews can make you quite tearful something. We deliver something from the heart and then people receive that and go - This is amazing, we love it.”
Looking back at the year, Kevin said that some of the best moments at the cafe were without a doubt its events, such as tapas night, calzone nights and live music, which are often the most fun and exciting.
In the future, the owners are hoping to gently grow the business, carrying on with the same work but delivering more and different things with its usual finesse, style and efficiency.
“We just wanted to do something different, because if you are going to open something in a town, you have to do something that is not currently there, to make people want to come.”
