Former Pizza Hut in Cleveleys undergoes transformation into new sports bar

The restaurant and takeaway on North Promenade has remained empty since Pizza Hut announced it would be closing 29 locations during lockdown last year.

Pizza Hut opened on the Jubilee Park site in 2006, but in September chain bosses declared it would be one of Covid's casualties and remain shut.

The closure came shortly after the Jubilee Park pub, also on North Promenade, also shut its doors.

Following the announcement, councillor Rob Fail said he hoped the Pizza Hut unit would be taken over to "prevent vandalism and restore jobs," and said it was a "blow to Cleveleys economy."

But the unit has now been taken over by two Cleveleys building and construction trade businessmen - Rob Hopkinson and John Sherwood - who will open RJ's Sports Bar in "the next few weeks."

Sarah-Jayne Coop, general manager of the bar and Rob's fiance, said opening a sports bar had been a lifelong dream of his - so when the unit became available, the new owners jumped on the chance to bring it back to life.

Sarah-Jayne said: "We're going to be a family-friendly bar, and we aim to show all televised sports here. We'll have ice creams for children who come along, and we'll be serving coffee and American diner-inspired bar food.

"We'll also have lots of different draught lagers and ciders, and we're going to be serving a brand new wine brand whose bottles are made from fully recyclable materials.

"Sustainability is important to us, especially with us being near the sea. We'll have protein shakes and smoothies as well, we've been speaking to JD Gym so we can also find out how to best serve customers using the gym.

"We're very much about the local community, we all live in Cleveleys and we really want to orientate the business for the people who live here.

"We want to help to bring a bit of community spirit back into the world."

RJs bar plans to open to the public in the next few weeks, Sarah-Jayne added.

It will be open seven days a week, between 11.30am and 12am.