The team behind Liverpool's independent restaurant group Maray is preparing to launch its first dedicated wine bar, Café Barbette, in Chester next month. The new venue, located in Exchange Square opposite Chester Market, draws inspiration from the Parisian streets of Le Marais and has been a long-term ambition for the group.
Long-Awaited Concept
Maray, founded by Tom White and James Bates, already operates four venues: on Bold Street (2014), the Royal Albert Dock (2019), Manchester city centre (2022) and Chester Northgate (2025). Parent company QVO also runs Liverpool staples such as The Buyers Club and The One O'Clock Gun. The new wine bar concept emerged when the team realised the Chester site was too large for a single restaurant.
Co-founder Tom White told the ECHO: "When we took on this site in Chester last year, it quickly became clear the building was too large to operate as a single restaurant. At the rear of the site, we have this beautiful square with a suntrap terrace. It felt like we were waiting for a sign and suddenly it all clicked."
Complementing Chester's Scene
White emphasised that Café Barbette is designed to complement Chester's existing independent scene rather than compete. "Chester already offers a lot and there are some fantastic independent operators in the city. We spent time looking around and got a sense of what was already here. We felt like what we were planning would complement the existing scene rather than compete with it. It just made sense."
The wine bar concept has been in development for years. White added: "You often have ideas rolling around in the back of your mind for years. This was the perfect opportunity to finally bring one of those ideas to life."
Wine Discovery Wall and Parisian Menu
Café Barbette's centrepiece will be a wine discovery wall where guests can browse, taste and pour their own wines at their own pace. The food menu will be inspired by Parisian dining, featuring staples such as jambon persillé with ostarda and ratte potato.
The name Café Barbette was chosen to give the venue its own identity while remaining part of the Maray universe. "We could have simply called it Bar Maray and treated it as an extension of the restaurant, but this was an opportunity to build something with its own identity while still existing within the Maray universe," White explained.
Live Entertainment and Atmosphere
The wine bar will offer live entertainment with DJs playing vinyl selections, aiming to create a relaxed space where guests can linger. "What we want to achieve is a space that feels completely welcoming with no barriers. We want it to be fun, approachable and social," White said.
Team and Passion Drive
Juggling the Maray brand, sister concepts and the new wine bar keeps the team busy. "It's certainly not boring, I'll tell you that. There's a lot to juggle but we're more than a decade into this journey and we know what we're doing," White noted. He credited the senior management team—Lorna, Mark and Rob—who have been with the company for close to a decade, as essential to their success.
"Ultimately, what keeps us going is the opportunity to create places that we'd want to spend time in ourselves. Everything is driven by passion. We love creating new spaces, new experiences and new reasons for people to come together," White added.
With the opening just weeks away, White described the current phase as "exciting chaos." "There's always a huge amount happening in the final run-up to opening, but that energy is part of what makes it so rewarding."
