Newquay’s Project Eighty Three Named Cornwall’s Best Bar Again

It opened three weeks before the country shut down, as a motorbike clothing shop with a bar tucked alongside it. Seven years on, that same Wesley Yard venue has just been voted the best bar in the county for the second year running.

A second year at the top

Project Eighty Three has been named Best Bar in Cornwall at the Muddy Stilettos Awards 2026. The winners were announced on 16 June, with the Newquay venue holding onto the title it first claimed last year.

The Muddy Stilettos Awards are now in their fourteenth year and run entirely on public votes. They cover 28 counties, draw millions of nominations, and reach 5.7 million readers a month. They are free to enter, and regional winners go on to a national Best of the Best round. Winning once turns heads. Doing it twice in a row says something about how deep the support runs.

“A victory at the Muddy Stilettos Awards is unlike any other,” said Gillan Pope of Project Eighty Three. “Every vote comes from the public, which makes this win especially meaningful. To be chosen by the people of Cornwall and beyond for a second year tells us that Project Eighty Three is more than a bar people visit. It is a place the community has genuinely embraced.”

From motorbike shop to cultural hub

Project Eighty Three started in 2019, just before the pandemic, as a specialist motorbike clothing store with a bar and coffee shop beside it. It was meant as a quiet retreat from Newquay’s busy town centre. But word spread well beyond the biking crowd, and people started showing up for the atmosphere as much as anything else.

Moving the food, drink and events into a dedicated space opposite pushed that growth along. The original motorbike store still sits at Wesley Yard, keeping the venue tied to where it began.

What it has become is harder to sum up in a line. Live music, arts and craft workshops, record fairs, farmers’ markets and a full events calendar now sit alongside a steady commitment to independent businesses and the subcultures of the South West, from surf and skate to snow. The venue has also pulled in bigger names, including a Triumph Motorcycles collaboration that brought the brand’s new range to Wesley Yard for local riders to try.

“Our plan was simple: build somewhere that everyone could enjoy,” Gillan said. “We still have moments where we sit in the courtyard, watch people gathering, and find it surreal that we built this place and people keep coming back to it.”

A packed summer ahead

The months ahead look like the busiest the venue has put on yet. This Saturday brings back the Newquay Farmers’ Market, a monthly fixture on the third Saturday of each month. The Chopper Show follows on 4 July with three live bands and a hot dog eating competition.

August brings a live performance from Jack Bessant of Reef, and film fans can look out for a screening of a new film from broadcaster and technologist Jason Bradbury. A Patagonia sustainability event will bring the brand’s clothing repair initiative to Cornwall, with more record fairs and other events still to be announced.

The resident street food traders have built reputations of their own too. Raak Thai and Smashed Joes both have their regulars, and Smashed Joes in particular keeps drawing a crowd.