The bosses of popular seafront venue Miles Bar will leave the business next weekend.
Bosses Sally and Michael White will be holding a party on Sunday (March 25) from 2pm to say goodbye to the Harbour Parade business that they have run for six years.
In a post to facebook the couple said: “We will be saying goodbye to Miles Bar after 6 happy years.Please join us as we say a big thank you to the many lovely people we have met and for the great times we enjoyed
“There will be food, drink and music so we look forward to one more party.”
The site is being taken over by Royal Harbour Hotel and Empire Room boss James Thomas. It is believed the business will continue as it is temporarily but changes will be made at a later date.
The change follows the closure of the Belgian Café last month (February). The bar, which was operated by Belgium Boho Ltd since the company took over from former boss Andy Barrett, closed on February 12 although it has not been confirmed whether the closure is permanent.
UPDATE: Sally and Michael’s departure has been postponed. Miles bar remains open. A new date for the couple to leave has not yet been fixed.
I am really sorry to see the demise of the Miles Bar. Same fate as the Great Belgium Café. When will people learn that allowing companies like Wetherspoons to a Harbour Jewel like Ramsgate will kill off smaller businesses. Allowing Wetherspoons in was short sighted decision which lacked imagination and failed to put the community first. Yes they are cheaper but the food is always substandard, the service is hit and miss and they can afford to offer cheaper prices because they are so big. Look what Westwood cross did to the town centre. People just do not learn do they. They complain about the dead town centre, parking and public wc’s but revel in Westwood Cross and Wetherspoons. Cake and eat it!!! If people think that people will come to Ramsgate because of Wetherspoons then they are misguided. Wetherspoons will soonest close and drop the pavilion as soon as targets are not met and then we are back to a Harbour front Wasteland.
Things can’t be that bad as it seems as though the bar will continue as a new business venture? As for The Belgian Cafe …. well I think that the writing was on the wall long before Wetherspoons arrived. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the place and I’m gutted that it’s gone (even though a pint of Hoegaarden was £6.20!). However I feel that it started to lose it’s mojo as regular friendly staff moved on along with some of the regular clientele. It was usually ‘buzzing’ most evenings with music, high jinks and boisterous chat but I noticed a big change over the last 18 months.
I lived overlooking Harbour Parade and once Wetherspoons opened the amount of people heading in that direction went through the roof. If the substandard food and hit and miss service left punters feeling aggrieved then surely they might think ‘well let’s try that bar/pub across the road?’ Yes Spoons are always going to be cheaper and for some people that is their main criteria when going out but for others it is value for money and takes into consideration such things as cleanliness, the quality of the service, food and drink, the atmosphere and friendliness of both the staff and customers alike.
Judging by what I saw last year a lot of people will come to Ramsgate and enjoy The Wetherspoons as it provides the option of cheap food and drink for the whole of the family in a nice environment.
When the Wetherspoons landed I still continued to drink in The Queens Head (great beer, service, atmosphere and entertainment), The Red Lion (same criteria as The Queens), Churchills (so much talent on jam nights), 26 Harbour Street (more music talent on show) and The Belgian (proving general all-round late night madness).
At the end of the day the truth is that there are quite a few businesses fighting over a relatively small pool of potential customers so only the ones that are right on top of their game will survive.
well, I ‘ve had a few slaps over my comments….anyway I would still prefer to spend a few quid extra and eat and drink in an establishment with character and personality where you can get to know the people and owners. With more imagination that lovely Pavilion building (worked there as a kid) could have been so much more then yet another same old same old Wetherspoons, formulaic interior, unadventurous food, under paid and poorly trained staff etc etc. I am all for small businesses flying the flag for Ramsgate, not big companies that chuck out the same old stuff whether in Torquay or Margate. Where is the context for such a place as this in a royal harbour.
Actually, Wetherspoons has nothing to do with this situation – Miles Bar is changing hands, not closing down – with the reason being that the people who currently run it, simply want more time for themselves and their family.
As for the Belgium Bar, I heard the reasoning behind the closure had nothing to do with Wetherspoons either. I think both can co-exist, and doesn’t simply have to be one or the other.
Well at the moment it is ‘one’ and not the other and I bet will stay like this for sometime. Anyone thinking of opening a drinking and eating establishment anywhere near a Wetherspoons are going to find it hard.