A WINCHESTER drinks lounge with a sustainability ethos has recently begun to take the limelight.
Proudfoot and Co. on St. Thomas Street in the city centre was shortlisted by Drinkaware and has been featured by Fentimans, the botanical beverage brewers, for their non-alcoholic drinks menu.
Founded before the pandemic, the lounge offers drinks which are locally and naturally sourced and brewed in-house with techniques derived from old textbooks.
Eoghan Proudfoot, founder and owner of the business, used to work in the food industry in London before he chose to work in Winchester to open his sustainable bar, with a mission to combat climate change and the unsustainability of today’s food industry by going back in time with production methods and sourcing locally.
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He said: “Winchester is a lovely bubble, and we’ve got a lovely group of independents here as well that you don’t really get in many other places in the UK.
“I usually describe ourselves as just a drinks lounge combatting climate change, by looking at the past. I don’t harp on the non-alcoholic side too much. Either you’re buying some sort of a fruit juice or a ‘no-secco’ or a ‘no-tini’. I think the future is just having wonderful drinks that just happen to be non-alcoholic. There’s not that distinction of it being a non-alcoholic drink.”
Proudfoot and Co. has researched old cooking textbooks to rediscover ancient methods of brewing and production, and in addition to this forage every day for ingredients, keep their own bees, tap local trees for syrups, and ferment in-house. They have also been supporting local farmers and working with Sparsholt College to promote a sustainable and locally sourced way of living.
Eoghan said: “I think that it’s really bizarre that living sustainably and locally used to be a way of life and there aren’t more places resurrecting that knowledge and lost ingredients. A lot of the drinks we make are actually from within 10 minutes of the shop. Local is the way we need to go.”
Proudfoot and Co. is open on St. Thomas Street, Thursday to Saturday 12pm-10pm, and Sunday 11am-8pm.
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