A POPULAR city bar and café has seen continued success after the opening of its expanded premises.

Cabinet Rooms, on Jewry Street, opened its new extension at the end of November 2022. Now, almost four months on, owners Gary Whiter and Marcus Roe have revealed that the business has continued to go from strength to strength.

The expansion saw Cabinet Rooms take over the neighbouring premises formerly occupied by Computer Solutions.

Hampshire Chronicle: Marcus Roe (left) and Gary Whiter have run the Cabinet Rooms since 2017Marcus Roe (left) and Gary Whiter have run the Cabinet Rooms since 2017 (Image: Newsquest)Gary said: “We have been trading next door, in our original space, for about five-and-a-half years, and as we were coming out of the pandemic we knew we needed to have bigger space as we were so busy, especially on weekend evenings, that we found we were turning people away. Which is a good problem to have, but obviously we don’t want to turn anybody away, so we knew we needed extra space.

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“It’s just pure luck, I suppose, that Computer Solutions who were here before, they vacated”.

The expanded space has allowed Gary and Marcus to add more seating and a larger bar area as well as offer a wider range of cakes and food, including breakfast and lunch.

Gary added: “It’s gone down really well with people. It’s been really busy since we opened, it’s been great.”

Since the bar reopened, the pair have been experimenting with hosting different events, including live music on Sunday evenings, with Gary saying: “It’s only really been having the additional space that’s allowed us to do that.

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“So, that’s kind of spurred us on to try different things, and there’s so many opportunities for us to do more. It’s quite an exciting time for us.”

Gary and Marcus also wanted to thank their regulars for their support, saying: “We have people that are still coming in now that were there when we took on the Art Café in 2017 and transformed it into Cabinet Rooms, and they’ve been coming all this time.

“And they’ve really seen us develop and grow, and it’s a bit cliched to say it’s like a family, but these people have been on this journey with us and that means so much to us, especially during the pandemic.”