After toying with the idea of building her own mobile bar for a few years, a trip to Las Vegas spurred Gayle Culross into action.
While celebrating her best friend’s 50th birthday in Sin City last year, the Glamis woman met an older lady with an impressive life story.
“She was a bit of a high roller and she’d lived this amazing life,” Gayle recalls.
“I’d been chatting with her about gambling and her life, but she said something that stuck in my mind.
“It’s my mantra now: scared money makes no money.
“Basically, if you don’t take a chance on something, you’re never going to know how it would have turned out.”
She returned from her trip fired up and began searching for a suitable trailer. With a distinct image in her mind, she cast her net wide and looked all over the UK.
Though as luck would have it, Gayle found the perfect home for her new business Let The Fun Be Gin just 15 minutes down the road from her steading. In September last year, she towed the vintage Rice horse box home.
Inspired by the name of the manufacturer and the 80s TV presenter, Gayle named the trailer Anneka.
Mobile bar with a taste of Angus
After a busy few months, the 47-year-old got to work on the conversion over Christmas. As Gayle’s husband Greg is a joiner, the couple did all the work on Anneka with some help from friends.
She says: “We wanted something that we would be happy to have a drink at or a photograph taken in front of.
“It’s very much a labour of love with our stamp on things, even down to painting the logo ourselves.
“As a result, we’ve probably spent more money than we should have. It’s quite a few thousand pounds on top of the cost of the trailer, but we wanted it to be something special.”
The Let The Fun Be Gin trailer is equipped exactly like a normal bar, but in a smaller space where two bartenders can work without falling over each other.
It is stocked with a range of local spirits, including moonshine from Angus Alchemy and gin from The Gin Bothy. While prosecco can’t be sourced in Scotland, Gayle aims to work with small local businesses to source her bar ingredients.
This will also include local fruit and berries to decorate the drinks and offer a flavour of Angus.
“I’m originally from Dundee, but moved up here 11 years ago. It’s exciting times for Angus, so we want to support local and give people a flavour of the area,” she says.
Let The Fun Be Gin hits the road
Let The Fun Be Gin is already filling up the calendar with festivals, events and celebrations over summer. The mobile bar’s first outing will be Forbes Food, Drink and Flower Fest on Sunday April 23 at Forbes of Kingennie.
For the King’s coronation, Gayle is taking Anneka down the road to Glamis Castle on Saturday May 6 to take part in the celebrations.
“It’d be lovely if His Royal Highness popped in for a glass of prosecco, but I think he’s going to be busy that day,” she laughs.
The prosecco and gin bar can also be booked for private events like weddings and birthday parties. For now, Let The Fun Be Gin is a weekend job for Gayle who works full-time as a communications officer at Angus Council.
As a “big people person”, working from home over the Covid pandemic was tough and she’s looking forward to meeting clients more often again.
Sometimes working in communications means being the bearer of bad news, so with the bar Gayle hopes to only share happiness.
“I’m looking forward to getting out and about to see what people think of the bar,” she says.
“This is a bit of a hobby and a side hustle at the moment. I have no plans to give up my day job, as I still need it to pay for Anneka.
“But, this is my little retirement project as well. I’m hoping I can be ‘gin-sufficient’ and retire off the back of Anneka.”
Conversation