Chesterfield bar owner takes on Chatsworth Road pub – with venue reopening today after ‘extensive’ refurbishment

Santiago Perez has taken on the former Alma Pub on Chatsworth Road – relaunching the venue as the Brampton Social Club.

He said that the building has undergone a complete overhaul over the last few months, and is now a modern take on the classic social club.

“We’ve got a nice mood-board of what the Alma was like – it was a proper old boozer. It was very traditional and had a nice community around it, and it was always kept in a nice state.

“But Chesterfield is becoming quite an interesting and high-energy place at the moment. There’s a lot of nice bars and I’ve been looking on Chatsworth Road for a long time, because there’s a lot of footfall and traffic, as well as an opportunity for a really nice bar/pub.

“It’s a very modern spin on a social club – high chairs and tables in some areas, lots of wood, new floors, log-burning fires and refurbished toilets. An extensive amount of work has been done and it’s a totally different type of venue. You probably wouldn’t recognise it if you came into the Alma before.”

Some parts of the Alma were retained as the rest of the building was redesigned, and Santiago said that he wanted to recreate that same sense of community.

“We’re going to show sports – we’ve got three screens and you can one from wherever you are in the room. We’ve spent a lot of money on it, and it’s called a social club because we still want to keep that community element to it.

“We kept the original bar, which was beautiful, and we’ve just opened that area out. It’s a nice place for people to go and have fun and to watch some sports if they want. We’ve got a great selection of cocktails and beers and a nice beer garden. We will be extending the beer garden in the future and we will also have an outside bar.”

Santiago also owns Apartment on Church Way. He said the Brampton Social Club will be a different venue – but one that will compliment the other bars and pubs along Chatsworth Road.

“I like to be able to watch some sports and have a beer with my pals without someone chucking beer all over the place. I own Apartment Bar in town which is quite high-energy, but it’ll be totally different here.

“We’re going to have a quite eclectic music mix with some retro music, and at weekends we’re hoping people will take advantage of the Brampton Mile.

“There’s some great venues along Chatsworth Road – Deja Vu, Junction and the Tramway are a few. We want to be part of that, we don’t want to steal customers – I want us to be part of that run.

“The Brampton Mile is famous but a lot of those pubs have shut now. It’s a nice venue and we’ll pick people up on their way down Chatsworth Road.”

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Santiago added that there was a personal element to his latest venture. He has family roots in Brampton, and said that had driven him to reinvest in this particular area of Chesterfield.

“I’m from Chesterfield and Brampton. I’m very proud of the area, my family is from here and I want to bring something back to the area.

“After having to shut Apartment for 18 months, I personally really had a tough time. We had 18 months with a closed venue and no revenue, it was really tough mentally and for the people who work for us.

“People might say there are challenges in hospitality with rising costs, but you can either stand still or follow what you believe in and what you want to do.

“I spend my day job travelling around the world, working for Global Brands, and I see bars up and down the country. I like to bring back bits and bobs of what I’ve seen. People might not think it’ll work in Chesterfield but I’m prepared to give it a go.”

The venue will open from 4.00pm today (Thursday, April 6) – head to its Facebook page here for more information.