How does Dry January really affect London bars?

With the Christmas festivities now feeling like a distant memory, people are settling back into their day-to-day routines.

For many, the start of a new year brings with it a swathe of promises to themselves and ambitions to make positive changes to their lives.

In truth, these often fall by the wayside as quickly as the ideas are first formed. But a big campaign much of the UK population get on board with, for the early weeks of the year at least, is Dry January.

Launched in the UK by Alcohol Change in 2013, the campaign has grown from 4,000 people officially signing up in the first year to over 200,000 taking part in 2025. Many more, of course, will also aim to stay sober or at least cut back in January, without officially signing up via the campaign website and app.

From the outside, that presents an extra challenge for an already struggling hospitality industry.

But while that may be the case for many, it may not be the case across the board, particularly in London.

How London bars really experience January

To get a feel for how business operators navigate January, we spoke with Max Venning, co-founder of Three Sheets Bars, who has operated in the capital for almost a decade.

“We’re not unique in this, but we’re small - 20 covers in Dalston, 40 in Soho - so our swings are much narrower than bigger venues,” he explained.

“December is obviously a super busy month, but it was only a three percent uptick on November. January is usually five to 10 percent down in revenue, which is manageable.

“We position ourselves as affordable luxury. Our drinks are £13–£15, which isn’t cheap, but market comparison, for the quality you’re getting, it’s good value.

“In London, people still go out in January, just fewer of them.

“We do three oysters free with any martini or champagne. Normally it’s before 6pm, but in January we do it Sunday to Wednesday all night. Stuff like that drives trade.

“We don’t put extra focus on non-alcoholic drinks in January. Londoners, generally if they’re not drinking, they just stay at home or go for a jog, or drink water - they’re not going out drinking expensive mocktails. The majority of our sales in January are still boozy drinks.

“We want an amazing non-alcoholic offering all year round, not just in January.”

From Manchester pubs to opening Three Sheets

Mancunian Max opened Three Sheets in 2016 alongside his brother Noel.

It came after spending his whole working life behind the bar, in pubs, nightclubs and higher-end venues across Manchester and during his university days in Edinburgh, before moving to London.

Max’s previous employers include the likes of Sankeys, Rick’s in Edinburgh and The Drink Factory, where he worked his way up from bartender to operations manager.

“I’d always wanted to open my own bar, but it wasn’t really on the horizon,” Max said, discussing the decision to open Three Sheets.

“I realised I was doing all this work without having the final decision. That was the moment where I thought it might be time to do it myself.

“I wasn’t actively looking. I lived in the area and walked past what became the original Three Sheets. It was a coffee shop with a licence called Betty’s.

“There was an estate agent outside, so I asked if it was on the market. He said yes, so I grabbed his card, went home and put an offer in straight away. At the time I probably had about £500 in my bank account. No savings, no investors, nothing.”

Initially, that particular story ended there as a different buyer’s offer was accepted instead. But the chance encounter put the seed in Max’s mind, which led him to forming a business plan and raising funds with Noel to make the idea a reality.

“The agent came back to us and said the previous offer had fallen through and would we take it? Most of the legal work was done, so we took it,” Max said.

“The premium to take on the site was £70,000 and rent at the time was only £8,000 a year. We thought if we can’t make that work, we probably shouldn’t be owning bars!

“Within four to six weeks, we had the keys. We handed in our notice the same day. I had time booked off for Glastonbury for the festival but didn’t go. Instead, we cleaned, painted, and opened two days later.

“We traded like that for two months, Noel moved down, we finalised the concept, then closed for a month refurb and reopened as Three Sheets in October 2016.

“The first four months were completely dead. Then it slowly gained traction through word of mouth in the industry. About nine months in we hired our first member of staff and it grew from there.

“It was a slow start, but the journey since then has been good.”

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A decade on: consistency, craft and evolution

Just surviving in the industry for almost 10 years in the current climate is an achievement in itself.

But for Max, the story is far from finished, as he looks to expand his successful concept.

“The bar and menu hasn’t really changed since we opened,” he said.

“Obviously drinks have changed and we take bookings now where we didn’t used to.

“It’s nine drinks, cocktail led, kitchen techniques behind the cocktails, but very simple serves, easy to understand for guests, quick service, good atmosphere.

“The idea was world-class drinks, as good as you’ll get anywhere on the planet, in a relaxed neighbourhood environment. That wasn’t common in the UK at the time.

“The style - clean, minimal – at the time there was maybe us and a couple of other places doing them. Now you see that globally as well. What we do hasn’t changed.

“The style of drinks is very similar, but people’s palates and the general consumer palate has changed in the last 10 years. We don’t just keep up with that; we try to help lead it.

“We are constantly adjusting everything we do. The French 75 is a good example. It has been on since we opened, but we are on the third version of it now.

“The level of detail we go into finalising a drink, I can probably count on two hands the number of people that pursue flavour with the amount of dedication we do.”

He added: “Yes, the climate is hard at the moment, but if we wait to expand until the climate gets better, we don’t know how long we’ll be waiting for.

“If we open the right location and it’s the right thing, with the right timing, with the right product, which I believe we have, there will still be something there.

“We still need to have something to work towards and for. Not diluting the brand is something we really have to consider. We’ll likely open next in Manchester - that’s where we’re from, we know the city well and makes sense for the brand. We’re also open to other countries.

“We’re ambitious, but also patient. The site and location is everything – the most important thing for any business. It has to fit the demographic of the people there. We want to expand this year, but only if it’s the right location.”

The reality of non-alcoholic demand

Given his decades of experience in the industry, Max is well placed to explain how much the dynamic has shifted towards customers seeking non-alcoholic solutions, and the best ways to cater for that.

“There has been a shift, but a lot of it is marketing,” he said.

“Non-alcoholic sales in our bars have probably increased 300 percent in five years, but that’s gone from about 0.4 percent of total sales to around 1.2 percent.

“Outside cities, non-alcoholic drinking at home is a much bigger thing than it used to be.

“We take the attitude that everything we do has to be exceptional. We’ve moved from bespoke non-alcoholic drinks to a ‘classics’ menu - negroni, whiskey sour, espresso martini, americano - so people feel like they’re having their favourite drink, just without alcohol.”