Secret bar inside a bar where you have to ring a buzzer to get in

IT WAS once said that Carmarthen had more pubs than lampposts.

- ROB HARRIES

While I’m yet to count the lampposts that adorn the streets of Wales’ oldest town, it is certain that dozens of pubs have fallen by the wayside in recent decades.

People change, habits change, indeed society as a whole continually evolves. And when Covid-19 arrived on these shores just over five years ago, everything in the pub and bar industry changed immeasurably.

According to the Campaign for Real Ale, more than a thousand pubs across Wales, England and Scotland closed in 2024, while more than 300 have shut between January and April this year already.

With that in mind, people are looking at new ways to create something a little bit different in order to stand out in a fiercely competitive market.

The Dog & Piano opened in Water Street in Carmarthen almost a decade ago. Like all pubs and bars during that time, it’s had ups and downs and had its future plunged into doubt by lockdowns, rising rates and increasing bills, but it’s still there.

Only now, it’s two bars in one, because the landlady has decided to cut off a section of it and create a rather unique space - a bar within a bar, if you will.

Having leased the pub out before coronavirus hit, owner Nicola Morris has taken over the reins once more in recent years.

“It was a shell of a place so I had to start all over again,” said Nicola, who used to run a successful daytime restaurant in Carmarthen and a rural pub in the nearby village of Nantgaredig.

“Drinking trends have changed since Covid. People want more than just a drink when they come out these days, and at the same time they don’t have as much disposable income.