Reporter CIARAN KELLY catches up with the Tiny Rebel brewery team to find out about the success of their new pop-up pizza bar which recently opened in the city centre.

WITH just four months to go until the opening of Friars Walk, excitement is building about the range of new restaurants on offer.

With the likes of Las Iguanas, TGI Friday’s, Prezzo and Le Bistrot Pierre already confirmed as tenants, the hope is that a wider range of mid-priced family restaurants can have a knock-on effect in encouraging diners to socialise in Newport.

Yet, even before the opening of Friars Walk, one Newport pop-up is proving that there is already an appetite for something new and different when it comes to socialising in the city.

The award-winning Tiny Rebel brewery set up a pop-up pizza bar, Urban Taphouse, at the front of Newport Market two weeks ago.

The brewery, which was launched in 2012 by brothers-in-law Bradley Cummings and Gareth Williams, has grown from producing 80,000 litres of beer in its first year to more than 480,000 litres in 2015. It exports its products to nine different countries, including Italy and Japan.

This success in tough economic times has not gone unnoticed and Tiny Rebel has won the prestigious Champion Beer of Wales awards two years in a row for its Fubar and Dirty Stop Out beers.

Based at the Maesglas industrial estate, the brewery’s turnover has increased from £140,000 to £1.2 million since setting up.

Yet, it’s not just been the variety of ales, stouts and beers on offer that are grabbing people’s attention and the reaction to the pop-up on its first night was incredibly positive with its five members of staff even running out of pizza.

It was the same story a week later and already halfway through their tenancy, it seems that there is real potential for Urban Taphouse to be a sustainable long-term fixture in the city beyond May 31.

Open every day, between 12pm and 12am, the pop up bar experiment has offered Newport residents a viable alternative with its 'bring your vinyl' nights and board game evenings.

What has proved the main draw though has been the mouth-watering pizzas on offer – with the spicy sausage pizza being a particular favourite so far. This already sets the pop-up apart from its sister pub in Cardiff, which has a simple burger menu.

Constantly evolving, Urban Taphouse’s philosophy centres on freshness and independent ingredients.

Newport has proved the perfect home for this philosophy, with the pop-up even sourcing the ingredients from Newport Market next door supporting local businesses like Turner's and Love Fresh in the process.

Bradley Cummings, the director and co-founder of Tiny Rebel, said: “We hope to continue here long-term and it would be a shame not to use what we have locally.

“I go to the market quite often and you find interesting ingredients there that you wouldn’t find in a supermarket.

“We source independent, quality beer so it would be a shame not to have food of the same quality. They go hand in hand and you can’t have one without the other.

“We only sell Tiny Rebel beers and ciders, which are made three miles down the road. You can’t get any fresher unless you’re drinking from the actual tank.

“It’s similar with the food and it’s good advertisement to direct them into the market and that can only be good for Newport.

“The chef goes in every day and we have three to four different pizzas each day, depending on what we can get in the market, with one vegetarian option. We also use local fish and meat.

“It’s the simplicity of it in linking in with other businesses and supporting them.”

This philosophy is being spearheaded in the kitchen by Paul Turley, who has been a chef with Tiny Rebel since the opening of Urban Taphouse in Cardiff in September 2013.

Rather than relying on a set menu, the pop-up uses an ever-changing daily chalkboard menu that alternates depending on the weather and season.

Given the freshness of the produce, and the fact that the chefs do not know what the market will have on a daily basis, this means that no two days are the same at Urban Taphouse.

Mr Turley, who has been a chef for around eight years, said that the decision to use local ingredients was an easy one to make in Newport.

He said: “We feel we’re building something different in being part of the community rather than something that’s just here for a month.

“Rather than a set menu, we planned on doing a small number of things well rather than lots of things in an average way.

“There’s a lot to be said for local business and keeping on with the traders. Economically, the cost is not at the forefront of my mind and it’s worth spending a bit more to get that quality.

“Love Fresh has such an extensive range of fruit and vegetables with the fresh curry leaves and smoked garlic.

“It works both ways and when people compliment the sausages, we can point them in the direction of Turner's."

Although the pop-up has plans for bar snacks in the future, its main draw has been its wide range of pizzas, which also cater for vegetarians.

Mr Turley said: “Rather than it being a sit down restaurant, it’s about catering for groups of people so that they can sit down and share or take away.

“It’s not a time-consuming process putting it all together and our goal is to feed as many people as possible. People seem to really appreciate that.

“The set-up is a bit more basic at the pop-up, which can make it a bit of a challenge. But, you can play around with it and think differently as a result.

“It’s still a real learning curve and a week and a half down the line, things could be different in our menu plans.

“We just keep evolving."