New restaurant and cocktail bar The Monarch opens in Palmerston Road in Southsea for delivery and takeaway food and drinks

A NEW restaurant and cocktail bar has opened up in the city.
Bartenders, Denis Cindea and George Dimbleby from Southsea's new bar and restaurant, The Monarch, on Palmerston Road.Bartenders, Denis Cindea and George Dimbleby from Southsea's new bar and restaurant, The Monarch, on Palmerston Road.
Bartenders, Denis Cindea and George Dimbleby from Southsea's new bar and restaurant, The Monarch, on Palmerston Road.

The Monarch opened in Palmerston Road, Southsea on Monday, May 25, offering meals such as burgers, salads and grilled food for collection and delivery.

It is also offering cold cocktails, such as Summer Breeze and Cosmopolitans to take away, as well as homemade alcohol-free lemonade and coffee.

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It sits in what used to be Bar 69 and has undergone heavy renovations since the owners took over the lease in February.

Instead of the regular cocktail-making classes that many bars offer, they are planning on offering gin-making classes, during which guests can choose the key flavours and botanicals they’d like in their gin, before it is distilled in front of them.

Owner Andrei Slemco said: ‘We’re rewriting the book when it comes to bars and restaurants. We’re not like other restaurants.

‘It’s the weirdest time to open a bar, but we’re going to be brave and hope it goes well, we have already had a great response from the community.

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‘We’re grateful that people like what we do and we’re truly excited to share what we have done here, because we think we’re unique.’

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The restaurant was due to open before the country went into lockdown, but Andrei used the extra time to refine the interior of the venue.

He said: ‘When the pandemic started, I was a couple of weeks off from opening, but it gave us time to iron out things, so in a way it has been a blessing. It’s given us time to come up with something even better than we had planned.

‘We’re trying to be optimistic. It’s not the easiest thing, but we have got to keep going.’

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Local artists have been showcasing their work inside the restaurant, including Junk Yard Funk Yard, who painted a monarch butterfly.

The restaurant’s delivery service started on Friday, May 29 and meals can be delivered throughout the PO5 area, with a weekly deal of two starters, two mains and two cocktails for £30.

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