New cocktail bar provides tequila sunrise after Covid gloom

During the various lockdowns of the last 15 months, however, one Powys hotel instead chose to look beyond the darkness, to the tequila sunrise, and is now feeling the sea breeze on their face and raising a toast to its thriving cocktail bar.

Everyone’s been affected by coronavirus – whether you battled it yourself, lost a loved one because of it, were furloughed or lost your job, or have suffered mental health issues.

Llandrindod Wells’ Hotel Commodore might have had more reason to moan than most as they were forced to shut their doors for long periods. But, instead, they used the downtime to “reinvent ourselves”, as owner Andrea Murdock puts it.

“At the start of lockdown we were just like everyone else,” said Andrea, who has run the Commodore for the last nine years.

“There were lots of stories of hardship and we were scared of what the future held.”

Andrea took what was offered in various government grants and used those to renovate the whole ground floor, as well as all 16 of the hotel’s bedrooms and bathrooms. She didn’t take out any loans when she first purchased the property and the government halted payments on the mortgage for the first six months of the pandemic, which helped her. She furloughed all her staff so they were as financially secure as they could be, and has now been able to bring them all back.

And they then got to work on a new project, building an outside decking area and even introducing a new cocktail bar for when pubs and restaurants were allowed to reopen outdoors at the end of April.

“The idea came about ahead of the April reopening,” said Andrea. “We wanted to do something others in town were not doing and something the town hasn’t had before. We were sensible and spent the money in the right way.”

The inspiration for Harry's Bar, barman Harry Woodford

Commodore barman Harry Woodford

By the time the big day arrived on April 26, Powys’ newest bar was ready to be unveiled. Harry’s Bar was named after popular Commodore barman Harry Woodford – who has been promoted from his original role on reception to bar manager.

“I’ve got a cruise ship background so I thought it would be a bit quirky to introduce a cocktail bar. I’ve still got all the recipes, so I trained everyone up,” added Andrea.

“We thought we’d name it after the amazing Harry Woodford, after all people come here to see him. Harry started with us as on reception and has now excelled in cocktail making and mixology, so much so that we promoted him to bar manager and named our bar after him.

“I am a firm believer in staff motivation and rewarding excellent dedication to their work.

“I furloughed all the staff so they were financially sound. So they weren’t left scratching around for a new job. The scheme allowed me to keep all of my 15 staff, it’s taken away the financial stress for them.”

The entire project cost £42,000, with the Commodore now boasting a 17x5 metre decking area, complete with a stainless steel, retractable canopy, room for 40 seats and even grander plans to extend, with Andrea hoping to add a grilling area in the future.

“For us it’s just helped us reinvent ourselves,” she added. “We put it together in a short space of time.”

Andrea said she approached the renovation with a positive “if you build it, they will come” attitude – borrowing a famous line from the movie Field of Dreams, in which Iowa farmer Kevin Costner ploughs his fields of failing crops in order to build a baseball field.

And life has been something like a dream for Andrea and Co at the Commodore since being allowed to reopen, with customers flocking to the hotel.

“Guests have started trickling back in, a lot of people have been taking staycations, and we really have to thank the locals, who have been spending their money with us,” said Andrea.

“We always used to be a hotel that attracted a lot of coach visits, but the outside area and cocktail bar has brought local people in. The clientele has changed a bit, we’re appealing to a different market and the money they’re bringing in is allowing us to move forward.

“When we opened again for outside, we were ready with blankets for every customer and we’ve now started serving lovely afternoon teas too.

“We’ve had so many lovely comments and we’re booked up week to week. There’s been lots of compliments, people saying it’s something the town hasn’t had before, so it shows we can have the best of both worlds.

“Our story goes to show it doesn’t need to be all about the doom and gloom. We are certainly a product of working hard and spending our money wisely, and the massive help from the government has certainly done wonders.”