A Whitley Bay café and bar has become a hub for all things creative with a jam-packed events programme putting an imaginative twist on evenings out.
The owners of Baba Yaga's House, brother-and-sister duo Madé and Kester Stores, are celebrating almost a year of being in business after opening their fairtytale-inspired venue in May last year in a bid to bring something completely different to the coast. The quirky Whitley Road establishment starts off the day as a café, serving up coffee, soft drinks and a sandwich menu, before transforming into a late-night bar complete with cocktails, craft beers and charcuterie boards.
Not only that, but the café bar doubles up as an art gallery too - the wooden walls are covered with artwork by talented local creatives which are offered the space for free, so you might just pop in for a sandwich and come away with a new painting or print. And the magic has now been dialled up even further at Baba Yaga's House with the likes of poetry, music and craft evenings having been added to its repertoire.
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Visitors can join in on 'The Cooking Pot' - a monthly poetry and spoken word evening held on the first Monday of each month - or the 'Best of Buskers' monthly music night held on the second Tuesday of the month. There are also regular craft evenings, with recent workshops having included silk printing, chocolate making, vase making and jewellery making.
That's not all - there's a monthly Collage Club, a monthly Zine Workshop where participants can feature their work in Baba Yaga's Arts Magazine, and Art Exhibitions, with the next one due to take place in May. And other regular events on the list include DJ evenings, Kitchen Takeovers with pop-up food vendors, Yoga evenings, Writing Group, Tarot evenings, Queer Night and Ukulele Practice - so there's something to keep everyone entertained.
Reflecting on the past 11 months, Kester said: "Baba Yaga's has gone much better than we'd hoped. We have a very solid customer base, which really makes the place what we aimed for it to be - a very welcoming, relaxed and social place, where you could come in by yourself and leave having made a new friend.
"The place only seems to be getting busier which is partly down to support from the local arts/music community, other businesses and the fantastic people of the coast," Kester added. "To anyone who has mentioned us, promoted us or even told a friend to visit us we are extremely thankful!"
More information about the upcoming events at Baba Yaga are posted on the café bar's Facebook and Instagram pages, where interested parties can message directly to book. Madé and Kester are always open to running new events too, so would love to hear any ideas from locals on the evenings they would like to see in the future.
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