Dry Dock on St Thomas Street has opened its doors to the public.
Founder, Sam Watson said that it far exceeded his expectations. He said that he didn’t have massive expectations but the feedback that they’ve received had been 99 per cent positive.
He explained that now the non-alcoholic venue had finally come together it was ‘different’ than he expected, ‘but in a good way’.
The day of the opening saw Weymouth Mayor Cllr Kate Wheller ‘cut the ribbon’ and officially welcomed visitors into the premises.
Sam said that it was really good and that they had really good support from the public.
He said that they had live music, a fun quiz, a raffle with prizes and food from local suppliers. He added that they had a nice day and raised awareness.
The venue has a wonderful range of non-alcoholic beers, wines and beverages on offer, including Lucky Saint, Free Damm, Guinness and Doom Bar.
Dry Dock is for everyone, including those who don’t drink but still want to go into town and enjoy the atmosphere and benefits of an alcohol-free pub, such as darts, pool, quizzes, live music or just a place to meet with mates.
Now, Sam plans to welcome other community groups to use the venue.
He said that they’re beginning to use the space for community events and groups and that the non-alcoholic bar will celebrate National Recovery Month.
He said that Andy’s Man Club starts in three or four weeks’ time.
The business owner has ideas in mind for the future of Dry Dock including a mobile non-alcoholic bar.
Sam explained that he recently attended a local festival and ‘struggled to find any alcohol-free drinks’.
He’s since spoken to the festival organisers who have offered to let him have a pitch at the next festival if he continues with his vision.
Sam explained that anything could happen as over a year ago he had the idea of opening an alcohol-free bar and now Weymouth has an alcohol-free bar.
Sam and the Dry Dock crew are keen for community groups to make use of the space and to get in contact via email at: stayhappy@drydock.org.uk
It’s nice to see someone setting up a business and the best of luck to him.
In every way, Dry Dock looks like any of the bars along the road.
However, this isn’t like any of those bars, because you can’t get a drop of booze.
There is a list of drinks which includes Guinness, Doom Bar, Brewdog IPA, Peroni and many more, but they’re all alcohol-free, or 0.5 per cent alcohol or less, which is about the same amount of alcohol contained in a ripe banana.
Across Europe and the US, anything below 0.5 per cent is classed as alcohol-free. In short, you couldn’t even get even remotely intoxicated at Dry Dock, however many pints you order.
Sam said that somebody in his personal life had approached him and said that they felt that they were probably drinking a bit too much. He said he wanted to go somewhere and have a nice evening with him and chat about how they could make things better, but he realised that there was nowhere to go if you didn’t want to drink alcohol.
He then had this spark of an idea, to open his own alcohol-free establishment. He said that he’s always been an extremely sociable person, and found that when he stopped drinking when he was in recovery, he lost all of that, so he wanted to find a way to get back some of that.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 