MOJO first opened in Leeds 22-years-ago, taking another 10 years before opening the second Mojo in Manchester and then Liverpool in 2008 and Nottingham in 2017.
MOJO is now set to open this weekend, with a ticket-only event on Friday (20 April 2018) and then for everyone on the Saturday.
Mal Evans, Creative Director for MOJO, said:
The business has evolved over the years, when it was 1 or 2 venues it was possible to be almost everywhere. When it grew it necessitated more structure to ensure we delivered on what we promised to out customers.
We aim to make the best drinks we can in a great environment. You are not going to stand at the bar watching the barman muddling a kumquat for 10 minutes.
We are about what could be called street drinks like margaritas and Caipirinhas.
We put a lot of efforts into the preparations to make it all run as effortless-looking as possible.
I have a fantastic team in place, all different characters and I really like that. I left the recruitment to the new manager Jamie, and he has done a great job on that. Having a mix in personalities work for us also reflects on how we want a mix of ages and people at the bar.
The bar describes itself as a rock bar and Mal can talk at length about offering the best experience. Mal presents as a very enigmatic character knowing what works as a formulae, but recognising that Harrogate is different from his Leeds to open a bar.
The Harrogate bar is over three floors with a bar at the top and ground floor. It has also been opened-out at the back with a sun terrace.
Mal added:
It’s about offering the best environment, the best sound system, best fridges (for really cold beer) and best smiles – but really that is all just part of hospitality really.
We don’t have a desire to expand endlessly, that’s something that just doesn’t fit in with how we work.
But to get it all working is the difficult thing. We have made some mistakes along the way, but always learnt from them.
We want people to leave us feeling like they have had a great time, listened to a lot of music and been to a gig.
Not another bar