First Look: Groove Pad set to open new site in Shipley today

Groove Pad is expanding to a second site in Saltaire Road, Shipley, after its initial success in Otley since it was set up in 2018.

The Shipley site, which will be open seven days a week, will serve a mix of real ale, craft beers, and premium drinks and cakes and coffee.

The doors to the coffee shop will be open today and tomorrow from 9am to 2pm, followed by the upstairs bar from 2pm till close. Weekday hours, from next Monday onwards, will be 9am to 11pm for the coffee shop and 2pm to midnight for the bar.

Groove Pad owner Andy Parkinson and general manager Debbi Loker

In the upstairs bar, people can choose the music played at the venue whenever there isn’t any live music on.

The Shipley staff will employ a total of nine people. It is a pet friendly venue with disabled access and has an 150-person capacity.

It will also have five music rehearsal rooms available sell and vinyl records.

The bar’s drinks include cask ales, which are regularly rotated, along with premium lagers, bottled beers, teas and coffee.

Inside the Groove Pad in Shipley

It will even have its own branded alcoholic drinks available including Groovy Blonde real ale and Groove Pad lager and cider.

The business is the brainchild of Andy Parkinson, a music teacher from Shipley.

Debbi Loker, Groove Pad general manager, says there has already been a keen interest in the Shipley site’s opening on its social media channels.

She said: “I think Groove Pad is something that Shipley is missing from its other bars. It’s filling a niche. It’s different to other bars.

“We have a nice balcony with outside seating and beautiful views of Baildon.

It’s a place where music lovers come together. Groove Pad is an experience

“Customers come and love the experience they get. They get to interact with other people. Music brings people together. At our bar in Otley, people might come in on their own but they get talking to others. People have missed that social interaction.”

The Groove Pad staff behind the bar in Shipley

Groove Pad Beer and Vinyls opened on Orchard Gate - at the former Bar Rocca site in Otley - in October 2018. But in the short time since it has proved a hit with customers, been nominated for an Otley Business Award and was named by WhatPub (the Campaign for Real Ale’s online pub guide) as one of the top 20 new bars in the UK.

The firm’s existing Otley venue also hosts quizzes, open mic nights and themed events.

The Otley site also has a stock of more than 400 original vinyl records in stock for people to either buy themselves or ask the bar’s staff to play at the venue.

Groove Pad was also named in the top 20 new bars in Britain by Inews Newspaper in 2019.