Emmerdale and Waterloo Road star Adam Thomas has launched his second The Spinn bar in Stockport's rapidly burgeoning Underbanks district. It follows on from the launch of his first The Spinn restaurant with his best pal Scott Graham in Gatley in 2019.
Adam shared images of the site as it opened for the first time over the weekend, with huge crowds attending amid the Jubilee Weekend celebrations in Stockport. Adam shared with fans that being in hospitality through the successive lockdowns had been "tough".
But they're now hoping for a brighter future for the burgeoning business. They have previously hosted successful pop ups for The Spinn at Box on the Docks on MediaCity and Oh My Glaze burgers at the Trafford Centre.
Read more : Inside Stockport's new speakeasy bar right outside the train station
Adam posted photos of the pretty yellow painted bar in an historic building on the Underbanks with a message to followers. He said: "We finally opened ours doors in little under bank in Stockport!
Hospitality over the last couple of years has been really tough, we’ve been hit hard there’s no doubt about that but The Spinn is still here !! Just. And through The Spinn….The Spinn OFF was born!"
He urged followers and friends to head down and check out the bar for themselves at its new location, or support the original venture in Gatley which specialises in the Oh My Glaze burgers, wings and tacos. The new bar will be open Thursdays to Sundays for a "soft launch period" with drinks only - with plans to introduce food at the Underbanks site in the coming weeks.
Adam added: "Thanks to everyone who has supported us along this journey and more importantly to our amazing staff who we would be lost with out." The message was swift to gain support from Adam's many friends in the showbiz world.
That included his former Emmerdale co-star Kelvin Fletcher who said: "Keep raising the bar lad". While reality star Lucy Mecklenburgh, Adam's brother Ryan's fiancee, said: "Looks insane! Well done @AdamThomas21".
Adam and Scott realised a lifelong dream when they launched their first restaurant together, The Spinn in Gatley, in 2019. But only six months later they were initially heartbroken when the national lockdown forced hospitality to shut down.
Adam and Scott admit now that lockdown was "sink or swim" time for The Spinn, but they were determined to make it work and switched to a takeaway and delivery model overnight. It would prove to be a gamble that paid off - they switched to a full burger menu that grabbed the headlines and thousands of fans.
The takeaway model would see I'm a Celebrity star Adam, Scott and even Adam’s famous siblings - ex-Corrie star Ryan Thomas and Love Island's Scott Thomas - getting involved by dashing around Gatley and Stockport delivering meals, which prompted plenty of funny stories along the way.
Adam told the MEN in an interview last year: "I turned up to do a meal delivery and one girl burst out crying! I didn’t know what was going on, but to be fair I think she thought I was Ryan.
"Lockdown was definitely a shock to the system but I'm not scared to get my hands dirty - we did what we had to to survive, and because of that our staff have still got a job and we’re back again and here we are opening a second site.
"This is what we got into the restaurant industry for, to see people happy and to make great food. It's been good but very challenging, but we came into it knowing that from the start."
Adam, 32, and Scott, 33, have been friends since school days at The Kingsway in Cheadle - and had talked about opening a restaurant together for years. While Adam went on to a showbiz career, with roles on Waterloo Road and Emmerdale, Scott launched his own successful sauce business Oh My Glaze.
But they still had those dreams of a restaurant - and a fortuitous night out at a casino would lead to a bet on a roulette wheel, with the two men agreeing that if they won, they would finally launch the business. Their number did come up that night - which they saw as a sign and the name of the restaurant is inspired by that winning "spin" of the roulette.
It was another gamble for the lads when lockdown came into force in March 2020, that has thankfully paid off. Scott said: "We were six months old when we went into lockdown we had to become a takeaway overnight, we didn’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves, we had to make something good from the situation and we’ve now created a real buzz with the burger menu."
Adam adds: "It was a nightmare, we never saw it coming, no one did. It took forever to get the place up and running and then only open for six months. We could have shut down and gone on furlough but we wanted to use the space to create as much positivity as we could for the local area."
Get the latest What's On news - from food and drink to music and nightlife - straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter .
