'High-end' restaurant to give recovering addicts a second chance

The Fork in the Road will feature a ‘high end’ dining room, community café The Spoon, and an alcohol-free ‘dry’ bar.

It is the brainchild of Andy Preston, the founder of charity CEO Sleepout - which sponsors business leaders to sleep rough for a night.

Preston said: “The restaurant will be high-end and will always deliver excellence. Alongside very experienced, top class professionals, we’ll train a small cohort of local people who need and deserve that precious opportunity to create a new life for themselves.”

It is hoped that the dry ‘Bar Sobrio’ will be used in Teesside’s recovery schemes and offer a place to meet friends without alcohol.

The not-for-profit restaurant will launch in a former toy shop on Middlesbrough’s Linthorpe Road with funding from CEO Sleepout and the NHS.

The Spoon community café and ‘Bar Sobrio’ are set to open by August, with The Fork in the Road restaurant launching six weeks later.

“The Fork in the Road will be amazing – it’s been hard work already but it’ll do incredible things,” said Preston.

 “I’m convinced this is a truly unique project in the UK and will set a new national standard.”