Loves Restaurant in Birmingham to close

06-May-2015 - Last updated on 07-May-2015 at 09:57 GMT

Steve and Claire Love whose Birmingham restaurant Loves Restaurant will close at the end of the month

Steve and Claire Love, the owners of Loves Restaurant in Birmingham are closing the business after six years to allow Steve to focus on the Bocuse d'Or and Claire to pursue her wine business.

The couple said they had decided not to renew the restaurant's lease at the end of its six year tenure for various reasons. Its last service will be held on 31 May.

Steve said: "Claire and I have had an enormously successful and really enjoyable time here in Birmingham. However, there are so many things that we have going on and maintaining the restaurant in the city was going to become increasingly more difficult."

The main reason for the closure of the 32-cover restaurant is Steve's involvement in international chefs competition the Bocuse d'Or 2017. In the 2013 competition candidate Adam Bennett was given months off to focus on the competition, regarded as one of the toughest in the world.

"That this was one the factors that Claire and I had to consider when looking to renew the lease in Birmingham. I will need to devote a great deal of time to preparing for this competition and felt that this was best served being away from our own restaurant for a period of time," said Steve.

Warwickshire restaurant

Although they will close their Birmingham restaurant, the Loves are planning to open another site nearer their home in Warwickshire in the near future. With an investor they plan to buy a freehold property which would encompass a fine dining restaurant, lounge and bar food concept, guest bedrooms and a wine tasting room.

While they find a new site the couple will also focus on their consultancy business Loves Consultancy, which they set up two years' ago to help independent restaurants and Claire will pursue her wine studies and continue with her wine business ClaireLovesWine.

"Ironically, after 15 years of running our own business, we are now finding so many people like us, small independent businesses that all need support in some way. I think because we have been there, and experienced what our clients are experiencing, they have confidence in us," said Claire.

The couple are also planning to run a series of pop-ups in the Midlands over the next year with details of dates available on their website.