Simon Rogan to change focus of Rogan & Company

The Cartmel-based restaurant, which opened in 2008, will no longer serve British brasserie-style food such as fish & chips, Irish sea fish pie and burgers, but will instead become a showcase for popular dishes formerly served in its sister restaurant l'Enclume.

"We need to give it a unique selling point which will be that it will serve all the dishes that l'Enclume will never serve again, such as those we had when I was going through my Japanese phase and my egg drop hot-and-sour soup with the noodles delivered with a syringe," Rogan told BigHospitality.

"I want it to capture the zany element that we used to have there, but serve it in more of a relaxed manner. We don't want it to be stuffy, but we are taking the food up a notch"

As well as changes to the menu, the restaurant's interior will be reconfigured, with the first floor converted into bedrooms and the ground floor, which is currently a bar area, to be the main restaurant area with an open kitchen. The restaurant will also be re-named.

Reasons​

Rogan, who was awarded the Chefs' Chef award at the National Restaurant Awards last Monday and whose restaurants l'Enclume and Roganic both made it into the top 20 of the 100 best restaurants, said he and partner Penny Tapsell had decided on the changes for a number of reasons - one being that it had been hit by a drop in customer numbers.

He said: "Rogan & Company has been hit by the recession. Having the restaurant over two levels has meant it's quite hard to run at times as you often need to have more staff on than you actually need and the building deserves something better too.

"Also, there are five pubs in Cartmel and trying to compete with them is pointless. This way we will give Cartmel another destination restaurant rather than just a neighbourhood restaurant."

Rogan said he wanted to get started with the changes 'as soon as possible' but had been kept busy with the recent relocation of his Cumbrian farm.

Last month the chef bought a new and bigger farm in the Cartmel Valley which is closer to his Cumbrian restaurants, allowing him to continue growing fruit and vegetables for use in his kitchens as well as keep livestock.