York bar Dusk in New Street set to relaunch after refurb

Independent cafe bar Dusk, in New Street, in the heart of the city centre, has been a fixture of York's day and nightlife since 2004, opening as it does seven days a week from 12 noon–2am.

Now Richard and Amanda Monaghan, the York couple behind Thor’s, who bought the bar in September 2022, have given the business a facelift and, after closing for ten days, it has reopened to the public ahead of an official relaunch event on Friday (March 8). 

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Richard and Amanda Monaghan outside Dusk in 2022 (Image: UGC)

Richard says the biggest job was moving the bar to improve speed of service and avoid bottlenecks and the place now has all new lighting throughout as well as a bright fresh paint job.

The vivid green of the downstairs bar shifts to orange and pinks on the stairs before more moody purples come into play upstairs as the colours shift from day to night.

Neon sunburst over the stairs at Dusk (Image: Haydn Lewis)

Richard said: "We had fantastic contractors from Edinburgh doing the work, Lucidblack and we have been working with designer Ja!Coco! who worked through the night to ensure we could open last Friday.

"We are all set to open the kitchen as we want to be ready for Restaurant Week next week, and we have some great offers for that.

"We'll be serving New York style pizza, huge slices and 16-inch pies, loaded fries and nice dips, with plenty of sharing options - we've been informed by our American visitors that they are very authentic."

The new seating upstairs at Dusk (Image: Supplied)

"When we bought Dusk we wanted to learn about the place. It was about keeping a steady ship and learning about what we could do to kind of reinvent the place," said Richard.

"It had been around for 20 years and this was about setting us up for the next 20 years and giving a few more people a reason to come here.

"Hopefully we've made it a pleasant place to come during the day for a coffee and cake and bring their laptop."

Upstairs at the new look Dusk in New Street (Image: Haydn Lewis)

With a capacity of 130, the bar has a gothic feel with tarot themed artwork adding to the branding.

New to the list of signature cocktails is a mezquito bite -  a blend of mezcal, triple sec, pineapple and citrus, with Britney Spear, Milky Bar Kid and Fidel Castro all still on the menu and all for £8.80.

"We know you can't mess with the cocktail menu," said Richard.

"There would be uproar!"

The new bar area at Dusk (Image: Supplied)