The Aviator Gin Bar
Newton Aycliffe
By Chris Smith
I'm not one for gin, but I've been meaning to try The Aviator Gin Bar* in Newton Aycliffe ever since learning it now has a restaurant attached to it, originally in the form of "Shake 'n' Cake" located elsewhere on the industrial estate, but since replaced by "Something Greek". They have limited seating indoors and sure enough an attempted booking the day prior was met with no availability, so we opted for the evening of Sunday 30th January (in fact, it was a replacement evening of entertainment on the Saturday where I actually discovered I'm not one for gin - but that's a different story!!!). If no indoor seating is available they offer takeaway and the bulk of their food sales appear to take this form given the lack of residential areas nearby, necessitating a car journey to get here.
*Not to be confused with The Aviator Bistro at Fishburn Airfield, itself also superb!
We arrived at the converted industrial unit and entered through a beer garden with the restaurant on the left, kind of like a fixed version of the mobile food stalls we'll see at the air show later this year. You enter through what seems more like a service door than a main entrance, you're then faced with a seating area made up of airliner seats and converted galley trollies as tables, although our table was a wing! There are two whole aircraft, one is AS365 Dauphin G-BTNC, the boom of which belongs to G-CEYU and the frame of Monnett Sonerai 2L G-BLAI which sits on top of three fuselage booths each with seating for six. These are from left-to-right Germania 737-700 D-AGEP, Qatar A340-600 A7-AGC and Plus Ultra A340-300 EC-MFB. The remaining airliners are Jet2 737-300 G-CELH and Windrose Airlines A321 UR-WRO and are both smaller more insignificant parts. The fuselage windows of G-CELH and A7-AGC make up the bar area.
After a cracking meal from Something Greek (I had the pork gyro with fries, pitta, salad and garlic sauce), we spoke to the bar owner, Wayne, who gave us the story behind the venture. Wayne completed his PPL at Teesside with the Teesside Aero Club and recalled many good nights had in the club bar! He had recently been south-side taking parts from LN-RCX which will also find their way into the bar. I suggested the vertical stabiliser of the Fiji 737 might be available to which he replied he'd already had the idea but it's just outside of the size limits for road transport. He has aspirations to expand into the adjacent industrial unit and install an entire fuselage but that's some way away yet. He has purchased the actual boom from G-BTNC and it will be arriving at the bar soon. The venture started out purely as a gin distillery with no aviation connection, hence the slightly unusual location of a warehouse unit on an industrial estate, but that doesn't appear to be holding the business back. A bar was added first and then came the aviation aspect, and Wayne said he got carried away from there. He was hoping to turn the helicopter into a DJ booth but because you can't stand up in it, this may not happen. I wouldn't have been able to tell if he hadn't of mentioned but he's in the process of switching out all of the seats having recently purchased a number from a British Airways A320. If I was a betting man, I'd say the originals were from G-CELH? There are also some Russian missiles in his collection which sit near the bar!! They might want them back before much longer!!
If I had any complaint it would be that due to the nature of the seats and tables, you're quite crammed in and are bending over quite a lot to get to your food - it's easier to have your tray on your knee - but these are very minor quibbles. The bar is very much a work-in-progress and Wayne is largely making it up as he goes along, but the slightly haphazard nature of the place adds to its charm and character, and I can't recommend it highly enough, and very much look forward to seeing how it progresses in future!
As a spotter my conscience is eating away at me - if there are no larger sections of these airframes remaining elsewhere - do I log them?! I would need three plus a paint-scrape!!
| REG | A/C TYPE | OPERATOR | NOTES |
| 2-AGCC | Airbus A340-642X | The Aviator Gin Bar | ex A7-AGC Qatar Airways |
| D-AGEP | Boeing 737-75B | The Aviator Gin Bar | ex Germania |
| EC-MFB | Airbus A340-313X | The Aviator Gin Bar | ex Plus Ultra Lineas Aereas |
| G-BLAI | Monnett Sonerai 2L | The Aviator Gin Bar | |
| G-BTNC | Aérospatiale AS365N2 Dauphin II | The Aviator Gin Bar | ex Multiflight |
| G-CELH | Boeing 737-330 | The Aviator Gin Bar | ex Jet2.com |
| G-CEYU | Aérospatiale SA365N1 Dauphin | The Aviator Gin Bar | ex Multiflight |
| UR-WRO | Airbus A321-211 | The Aviator Gin Bar | ex Windrose Airlines |
Facebook (The Aviator Gin Bar) (Something Greek)
