“SHU has always been more than just a restaurant,” he said.
“That’s why this restaurant has been thriving since it opened over 22 years ago. It is a passion project where the whole team collaborates to innovate and offer our guests the best all-around experience. We continually push the boundaries to ensure our offering is fresh and exciting.
“Whether you want relaxed early evening drinks accompanied by live music, chilled tunes, a great night out with a DJ and, of course, some of the finest food in the city, SHU has always been the place to see and be seen.”
SHU offers three different style elements incorporated under one roof, with a dining experience to suit every taste and occasion. The Friday and Saturday evening vibes are cool and sophisticated, with live music giving way to more up-tempo beats with the hottest DJs in town, as the evening develops. Sunday afternoons offer live Jazz music with the finest food and drinks in a relaxed, contemporary environment.
Having undergone £1m investment for refit and expansion in 2020, which saw the atmospheric basement bar reimagined as Jul’s, SHU is now launching an innovative cocktail menu inspired by Belfast’s famous creative energy.
Alan says: “Art has always been an essential element of the SHU experience. We celebrate our artists, musicians and creatives and give them space to perform and display their work. For me, building the ultimate hospitality experience is a very creative process because it’s about stimulating the senses in an immersive and satisfying way. I’m inspired by how artists continually remake the world in different ways. I love that restless energy to innovate.
“We proudly display artwork created by talented local and international artists on the walls in Jul’s such as artist, Neil Shawcross and award-winning photographer, Manon Ouimet. Their work is part of the SHU experience and helps create a relaxed atmosphere that all our guests enjoy. When it came to creating the most original new cocktail offerings in the city, we didn’t have to look too far for amazing inspiration.”
SHU are keen to present a brand-new vibe to the City, gone are the usual cocktail clichés of palm trees and sandy beaches as Jul’s exciting new drinks menu was exclusively developed in collaboration with Greg Buda, the Education Director of the Dead Rabbit in New York, previously named as the Best Bar in the World. Shu’s new signature cocktails have all been inspired by the art hanging on the venue’s walls, which has delighted since the redevelopment in 2020.
“We wanted to weave the history of SHU’s famous art walls into our new cocktail list by taking inspiration from the photography and paintings and naming the cocktails after them. To do this justice, our head bartender Aine O’Kane worked closely with Greg Buda to invent brand-new cocktails with an intriguing narrative backstory and an unbelievable taste experience,” Alan said.
That collaboration has produced an incredible range of drinks with a compelling story in every glass. For example, the Oul Frank was inspired by one of SHU’s most popular paintings by John Patterson, an Irish artist whose pieces reflect the highs and lows of life. This nutty, creamy, invigorating cocktail combines chocolate bitters, demerara sugar, Guinness, Taylor’s 10yr Tawny Port and Black Irish.
While The Spirit Level celebrates a book of poems by Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney with a balanced, floral, refined cocktail built on aromatic bitters, strawberries and Cocchi Rosa.
The DJ Harvey captures the essence of Jul’s after dark celebrating artists in every form, from music to writing, painting to poetry. Other drinks on the menu have been inspired by various colourful characters and compelling stories, including a book of poetry by Belfast writer John Hewitt and charting-topping singer of the 1950s, Ruby Murray.
Alan concludes: “We have an incredible range of new cocktails and a huge selection of the finest locally distilled gins and whiskies sourced from around the world. We at Shu are raising a glass to all those people who see life as art and to those who want to share in that creative energy and generate even more .”
Jamie Neill, Assistant Restaurant Manager at SHU is pictured with Aine O’Kane, Head Bartender at Jul’s.
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