Eclectic Belfast city centre pub, the Sunflower, is celebrating its ninth birthday today as it continues to go from strength to strength.
The bar, which is located on the corner of Kent Street and Union Street, occupies a spot which has seen many bars operating there since the late 1800s.
Instantly recognisable with its iconic green cage, The Sunflower Pub has been open to the public since 2012, and, in that time, has cemented itself as a go-to spot.
Known for good craft beer, for its vibrant history, for its live music and for being welcome to people of all creeds, The Sunflower has gained a reputation for being one of the friendliest pubs in the city centre.
Following a difficult time for the hospitality industry due to lockdown, the Sunflower are today celebrating make it through the last year and a half, as well as sharing photos of their journey.
Taking to Twitter to mark their 9th year in business, the bar said: "Happy 9th birthday to us! We're still here! Thank you all for your support throughout the year! We couldn't celebrate our birthday last year, so let's have a big one tonight. We'll bring the cake!"
They also shared nostalgic photos of what the bar was like whenever they were first starting up.
Back in April, Sunflower manager Bob McManus told us that their nine years in Belfast had been a "whirlwind".
He said: “In that short period of time, we’ve had a crazy amount of stuff that has happened to us. We won pub of the year, we’ve had to shut down during a worldwide pandemic, won countless awards and it’s been a bit of a whirlwind."
Bob also credited the pub’s unique clientele for making it a standout spot for drinking in the city.
He said: “We have a massive different eclectic mix of people who come in and drink here - from young and old, straight, gay, white, black, absolutely everything.
“It makes our job a lot more exciting and a lot more easy whenever you come in every day and see this diverse clientele and good people who want to come in and drink good beer and listen to good local music.”
