The Dram Gift Shop in Southport is toasting an “amazing” response from customers since moving into stylish new premises.
The shop originally opened on Botanic Road in picturesque Churchtown Village in April 2022.
Its growing popularity has led to a need for bigger premises, and The Dram has now moved into a unit twice the original size just a couple of doors down.
The premises were previously occupied by Arty Bitz and by Felicity Hat Hire before that.
New for customers is the ‘Peacock Lounge’ tasting room, an even greater selection of whisky and spirit themed goods for people to buy and an expansion from bottles of whisky to include rums and gins.
There is every whisky themed product on sale, including whisky themed sauces, whisky soaps, whisky bath products, whisky salt, whisky fudge, whisky perfume, cut glass, cigar products and more.
There are whisky flavoured chocolates, created specially by Botanic Road Fine Chocolate in Churchtown.
And there is an impressive selection of specialty whisky, rum and gin bottles that you won’t find in logical supermarkets. Shoppers can try some of the whisky on offer inside the shop before they buy.
The Dram Gift Shop owner Darren Boyd-Preece said: “The opening weekend has been amazing, absolutely amazing.
“It has been brilliant, better than we could have imagined.
“Lots of people have been messaging me with their congratulations.
“We expected it to be busy, but not as good as it has been! It is really exciting.
“We have been delighted to welcome lots of our regular customers, but it has also been great to see lots of people who we have not seen before and who have been exploring the shop for the first time.
“We have been doing really well during our first year at The Dram, and started to feel a little restricted about the size of the premises we were in.
“When the new larger unit became available close by it was a no-brainer for us. We jumped at the chance to relocate.”
The Dram Gift Shop has now doubled in size, moving from 76 to 80 Botanic Road, allowing Darren to increase the amount of products available for people to buy.
He said: “Having bigger premises means that our stock levels will increase.
“It’s fantastic having our new Peacock Lounge at The Dram. It’s one of our upgrades!
“This will be used for our whisky tasting events, and people can also pop in for a drink before or after heading off to your favourite Churchtown eatery. We will be open until 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays and will see how that goes.
“The room can also be used for private hire, for meetings or events.
“We are very proud of our tasting lounge and want as many people to use it as possible.
“As well as whisky, we now also stock bottles of rum and bottles of gin.
“If people come into our lounge area, they can also sit down and enjoy a prosecco, a wine or a beer.
“We also have lots of quality whisky and spirit related gifts on sale, perfect with Father’s Day coming up.
“We now have a much bigger selection of gifts in our cigar section, including cigar holders, cigar cutters and cigar lighters.”
It’s more good news for Churchtown Village, which in recent months has seen a series of superb new local independent businesses opening, including The Dram, Signature Bistro, Barklays, Little Sparks, Arthur’s, Vintage Home and more.
Darren said: “Churchtown Village has been growing from strength to strength. It is fast becoming the place to go, for shopping, for meeting friends, for meals out.
“Village life is thriving in Southport. Birkdale did it first, but Churchtown is now there as well.”
- Follow updates at thedramgiftshop on Instagram.
Do you have a story for Stand Up For Southport? Please message Andrew Brown via Facebook here or email me at: mediaandrewbrown@gmail.com
