Tommy Banks, the chef-owner of the family-run restaurant, recently named the best in the world by TripAdvisor, says he would like to open a second restaurant in a more urban location, with nearby York the preferred location.
“We would like to do something else together,” says Banks in an interview with Restaurant magazine. “The reason [The Black Swan] has survived over the Past 10 years is that the four of us take on the burden of running the business and we’d be very interested in doing another restaurant together.”
The Banks family took over The Black Swan at Oldstead in 2006 when it was their local pub. Tommy oversees the kitchen while his brother James runs front of house, with their parents also involved in the business on a daily basis. The restaurant won a Michelin star in 2011.
While the family have yet to find a suitable site, Banks says the intention is to create a restaurant with a different feel to that of The Black Swan, which has a rural setting and which is “literally not on the road to anywhere”.
“York is our home city and we’d like to do something more accessible in terms of location and price. It is something we definitely want to do in the next year or so.”
Tommy Banks appears on the cover of the December issue of Restaurant magazine. The full interview will be published online in the next few days.