Chesterfield pub Einstein's looks forward to the future with live music nights and garden parties

Einstein's is a popular pub in the heart of Chesterfield, which Alec runs in tandem with fellow manager Amber Holland. The pair have known each other since they were in the sixth form at Brookfield School and are well acquainted with the town that they love.

Amber, 30, joined the 12-strong team at the Holywell Street business a month ago, having been part of the original Einsteins workforce when the pub opened nearly eight years ago and then working at the Tap Haus in Mansfield for three years. She said: “It’s such a nice atmosphere in Einsteins, it’s always cosy and the staff are so friendly.”

With sales at Einstein’s climbing week on week, the managers are keen to capitalise on success. Alec, who has two years’ experience as general manager of the pub where he worked part-time while at university, said: “We’re launching live music on Fridays and Saturday, starting on March 25.”

The new after-show nights will coincide with events at the adjacent Winding Wheel, based on the boost in trade that the pub attracts when there’s a show on at the theatre. “We’ve always been really appreciative of the trade from the Winding Wheel,” said Alec, “even on slow weeks in January we’re guaranteed three or four busy nights .”

The warmest months of the year promise to be a great time for customers visiting Einstein’s. Alec said: “We have got one of the biggest outdoor areas so summer is going to be big for us. We’ll be having garten (garden) parties where there will be barbecues, table tennis, live music, DJs and deals on bucket beers.”

Many customers are drawn to Einstein’s by its food. Alec, 29, said: “We have a really good chef team and pride ourselves on simple German food.”

The pub’s Sunday roasts menu will be tweaked slightly at the end of April. The beef burrito – Yorkshire pudding wrapped around meat – will be replaced by a giant Yorkshire pudding on top of the beef.

Secrecy surrounds the jewel in the crown of forward planning at Einstein’s, with the big reveal likely to happen during the weekend of King Charles’ coronation in May. Ryan Fanthorpe, operations manager for Red Ladybird Ltd which holds the lease for Einsteins, offered this tantalising morsel: “We have exciting plans for the future.”

Meanwhile, the operators of Einstein’s have maintained its reputation for serving reasonably priced food and drink by absorbing the rise in costs. Ryan said: “It’s extremely difficult for the breweries – it’s just constant price changes which is not feasible to pass on to customers.” Alec commented: “We do speciality beers and we keep our prices to around £5 – we should be charging more like £25 on some of them. We’re maybe the fourth or fifth handler – they pass through so many people to get to us, especially beers imported from Belgium.

"These past three years since Covid have been incredibly hard with staffing and costs,” said Alec. “We lost quite a lot of original members of the team over Covid and we took on a brand new team. A lot of these people had never worked in bars or hospitality before but we could teach them the skills. We chose people who were friendly, nice and we’re like a family…we all hang out together and we drink together.”

Einsteins has survived the Covid pandemic, mounting costs and will continue to operate as the pub that customers know and love.

The business remains unaffected by the change in ownership of the building which was sold to an undisclosed big company this month.