The hopes and dreams of world champion boxer Carl Froch for a classy bar for all ages in Nottingham have come to an end with the closure of Alto. The roof-top bar, which launched with a swish celebrity party in 2018, didn't prove the knock-out success he was anticipating.
By the time it closed last week, the shine had gone off the glamorous white decor which visitors described as scruffy and grubby and the bar's reputation was left in tatters. One of the last reviews said: "Avoid at all costs. Can’t believe how run down this place has become - furniture broken with no cushions, floor filthy, table tops used as ashtray with burn marks and ladies toilets disgusting. Could be such a beautiful venue - get a grip owners! PS not worth the one star but couldn’t post the review without it!"
The bar, on the second floor of The Cornerhouse was put on the market three months ago, with Mr Froch, saying: "It's not the kind of establishment I want to be associated with and that's why I'm no longer a director of the place." The retired boxer, who runs a property company and works as a boxing pundit for Sky Sports, has sold his small stake and the bar has been taken over by new owners.
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The new owners, the team behind Nottingham's Groovebox Festival, are hoping to relaunch the bar in September, opening during the day for food before moving into DJs and late night dancing until 2am at the weekends.
They hope to breathe new life into the venue, which boasts an outdoor terrace overlooking the city. Workmen have started work on a major facelift, both inside and out, and, saying goodbye to the past, it will be renamed Sky Bar.
Operations manager Cassie McHugh said: "We are going to try and do everything completely different to what Alto was. It had such a bad reputation. We want to get away from that. We want to make it Nottingham's premier spot.
"It's stressful but I am so excited. I can't wait, it's going to be so good. With it being called Sky Bar we are going for a lot of turquoises and blues. We are doing what we can to make it look amazing.
"We are going to put an amazing dance floor in that will be show-stopping. I don't want to say any more - I want it to be a surprise but when you walk in it's going to have the wow factor, 100 per cent.
"We want to do food, we have a really good head chef coming in. I don't think they've done food for the last two years. It has solely been drinkers which is great but's it's almost a waste. It's the only roof-top bar in Nottingham really. It's such a good location. We really want to take advantage of the space.
"We want to do lunch deals and bottomless brunches as they are popular at the moment and a Sunday roast with saxophone players - just make it a bit classy as it hasn't been that. Obviously we want the younger people as well but we want anyone 30+ to feel like they can come here as well.
"A lot of my friends wouldn't come here before as they said it was full of 18-year-olds. It was quite cheap, two cocktails for £10. We plan to do students nights on Mondays and Thursdays. Hopefully there will be something every day for a different sort of customer.
"I want people to think it's a nice place to come and I want the service to reflect that as well as we are going to start training the staff this week. We are trying to retain a lot of the staff they had."
One of biggest criticisms about Alto was the state of the toilets. The majority in the ladies were without doors and had duct tape over the toilets, so they're also being overhauled. "They were hell on earth. There is no words to describe them. I think only two out of the eight toilets were usable. They were so dirty," said Cassie.
The layout will be altered, turning the front bar by the entrance into a closed off area for parties and cocktail masterclasses. A section of the terrace will also be partitioned off by the outside bar for private functions.
Cassie said: "I would really like to aim at corporate Christmas parties, and hen dos with their own mixologist and some cocktail classes. It was never really used before. When I came in up here would be busy and outside would be busy but down there at the front there was nothing - it didn't have a view so it was a bit of a wasted space so we're going to try to utilise it.
"The capacity is 850 standing. It's huge. You need to have a few different ideas and different areas to make it work, especially to fill it."
Last month Groovebox staged a festival at Colwick Park with DJ sets from Idris Elba and Jax Jones. "I don't know yet but we might be able to get some big names in here," added Cassie.
Sky Bar has vacancies for bar jobs so anyone interested is asked to call in.
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