Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2006 | Page 80

FOOD - DRINK - ACCOMMODATION - Sponsored by - www.holidays2remember.co.uk

Cellar bar’s
new lease of life
It took over three years for
husband and wife Shaun and
Debbie Newnham to turn a rundown cellar bar in Ryde into the
intimate, contemporary venue
they named Wight Rock - and
they admit there were times
when they wondered about the
sheer scale of the task they had
taken on.
“But I guess we had
a vision and could see
beyond the garbage” says
Shaun. “A big company
would have just thrown
thousands at it and had
it done in months, but
we were a small cottage
industry, doing everything
ourselves and we slowly
created the laid-back kind
of place we had always
envisaged”
The little bar, with its
capacity of just 60-70, has
been transformed with
leather sofas and neutral
décor and is now busy
building a reputation as a
chilled-out venue for live
music and comedy.
The personal touch is clearly in
evidence as Shaun and Debbie have
progressed from hands-on builders
to the venue’s only bar staff. Shaun
even switches hats and turns singer,
as part of the four-strong house
band Small Fry.
Wight Rock is certainly a place
where things happen – with quiz
nights on a Wednesday, comedy on

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the first Thursday of the month and
electro-acoustic, blues and folksyrock acts also lining up on the
growing programme.
“We want it very much as a music
and performance place” says Shaun,
who reckons the wheel has come
full circle for this little bar that was
a popular trattoria in the 1970s
but then spent some years in the

doldrums before languishing empty
and unloved for some years.
“We probably saw it in its worst
possible light, but we saw its’
potential and the great thing is
that other people are now getting
the idea and are very pleasantly
surprised when they venture down
here”. See our ad on page 76 for
further details.

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