Rick Astley and brewer Mikkeller open second London bar

80s pop star Rick Astley has once again teamed up with Danish brewer Mikkeller to open their second London site – Mikkeller’s first UK brewpub as well as a bar and restaurant in Exmouth Market.

A year after opening their collaborative bar in Shoreditch, Astley and Mikkeller have opened a two-floor brewpub with a bar and restaurant.

A pop-up bar at the site launched last weekend with the brewery and restaurant scheduled to open in March next year.

The 264-square metre site will have the capacity to produce 7.5 hectolitres of beer per brew. The already opened pop-up bar has 20 beers on tap and an extensive bottle menu. Once the brewery is opened next year, beer will be available to purchase directly from the tanks.

The restaurant’s menu will be inspired by Mikkeller’s Copenhagen restaurants which serve up dishes including traditional smørrebrød.

Mikkel Borg Bjergsø, founder and owner of Mikkeller, met Astley several years ago when they collaborated to brew Astley’s Northern Hop Lager.

Bjergsø said: “London is a fantastic city with a great brewing scene and many new, young breweries, and we are really looking forward to becoming a part of it.”

The new Exmouth Market site.

The site’s interiors will be created by Danish design agency Femmes Régionales, who also designed the bar in Shoreditch as well as Mikkeller’s brewpub Warpigs in Copenhagen’s meatpacking district. The aim was to create a brewery with a restaurant, “not a restaurant with a brewery”.

Astley commented: “I’m really excited for the opening of the new Mikkeller Bar in Exmouth Market. It’s a great space and it’s so cool that there will be brewing on-site, too. Mikkel and his crew only do things the right way, and I love being a small part of that and working on fantastic beers and the London bars together. I believe people want quality, and that’s what you get from Mikkeller.”

The pop-up opening coincided with the launch of Astley’s new album ‘Best of Me’ which has been released today (29 March). Bjergsø and Astley have collaborated on a third Astley beer – Astley’s Amber Ale – to mark the occasion.

Best known for his Never Gonna Give You Up, hit, Astley made a comeback in 2016, releasing a new album called ‘Beautiful Life’, on which he wrote, produced and played every song. His new album ‘Best of Me’ includes some of his original tracks and some re-imagined versions of existing songs, including a pianoforte version of Never Gonna Give You Up in F Minor.