The Waterfront opens riverside beer garden with street food vendors

Chelie Lear, head of The Waterfront, Chris Grove, technical manager at UEA and Justin Dique, security officer, at the new beer garden at The Waterfront in Norwich Picture: Louisa Baldwin (Image: Archant)

The venue, run by the UEA Students’ Union, has been shut since March due to lockdown and “a massive chunk” of events this year have been cancelled or postponed.

After four months, it has now reopened and staff have transformed the outside area into a riverside beer garden with benches seating up to six.

They will be open every Thursday to Sunday and tables can be pre-booked on the UEA Ticket Bookings website with two-hour slots available.

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Julie Briggs from ClearCompany, who have been running street food fairs across Norfolk, with Priscilla White and Lauren Clark from Squilla and Squidge street food van Picture: Louisa Baldwin (Image: Archant)

Their regular drinks menu will be on offer, including a range of draught beers and VKs, alongside cocktails, such as a Cherry Bomb and Cheeky Vimto, and it will be table service and card payments only.

Every day they are open there will also be street food available, with different stalls each time, and upcoming vendors include The Potato Pod, serving nachos and pulled pork, and Moco Kitchen, with tacos and bao buns, and customers can eat-in or takeaway.

Chelie Lear, head of The Waterfront, said: “The Waterfront has been run by the Students’ Union since 1993 as a live music and nightclub venue and with Covid-19 this is the first time we’ve had to close in that time.

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The new beer garden opens at The Waterfront in Norwich Picture: Louisa Baldwin (Image: Archant)

“We have had to cancel or postpone a massive chunk of our live calendar, so seeing as we’ve got such a lovely outdoor garden it would be a shame not to make use of it as we know a lot of our regulars have missed us.”

The street food fair has been organised by ClearCompany, a non-profit community interest company based in Norfolk, who have been running events across the county during lockdown.

Julie Briggs, director at ClearCompany, said: “We want to continue our fairs all year round and give that opportunity for traders, with seasonal ones too such as Halloween and Christmas, and want to introduce crafts and music eventually.”

See upcoming street food fairs on the ‘ClearCompany’ Facebook page.

The new riverside beer garden at The Waterfront in Norwich Picture: Louisa Baldwin (Image: Archant)

They will offer the full drinks menu alongside a few special cocktails Picture: Louisa Baldwin (Image: Archant)

Errol Watson at Ronnie's street food van at The Waterfront Picture: Louisa Baldwin (Image: Archant)