York Minster is an impressive location. How did that come about?
My business partner Mike Green (chairman of GEM Construction), who I do the Star Inn the City with, is on the charitable trust for York Minster. They wanted to raise funds and have a lot of spare buildings in their estate and he saw this opportunity to do a deal. We said we would sort out the building and look after if they did us a decent deal on the leasehold and rent.
Was it a lengthy process because of the nature of the building?
It was done over a period of a year and a half. The contractors were working on it seven days a week almost 24 hours a day. I turned up on a Sunday morning once thinking there would be nothing happening and there were 30 or 40 workmen on site. It does help when your business partners owns a building company.
And it was opened by royalty...
We fast-tracked the opening when we got wind that King Charles was attending the Maundy Thursday service at York Minster (6 April). It was a bit of a coup having King Charles and Camilla open the restaurant and it gave us some worldwide publicity. He unveiled a plaque for us. We have customers from the Far East and America that want to walk in his footsteps, so it was a dream start.
Tell us more about York Minster Refectory
The original York Minster site dates back to 627 AD and it was wooden built before the Vikings came and made a mess of it. Then the bigger version was built next door. The restaurant is set in the building that was the former choir school, where the choristers used to go to school and dine, which is why it is called the Refectory. It feels very European to me. When you sit outside and look towards it you could be in Paris, Brussels or Rome – York very much has that feel to it.
And what’s the food offer?
We’re open for breakfast through dinner and it’s quite British in essence. The head chef is Joshua Brimmel [executive head chef of The Star Inn The City]. I’ve always flown the white rose flag for Yorkshire but this is more British food because we have more of a worldwide audience (dishes include slow-cooked pig’s cheeks with radish, pea and broad bean salad, smoked bacon croutons and Granny Smith apple; the Refectory Cocktail of Atlantic prawns, spiced crab, crevette, mussels and clams, avocado served with a warm tin loaf; and chargrilled loin of Yorkshire venison with haunch and black pudding potato pressing, new season turnip and sauce ‘grand veneur’). We have a coronation crab vol-au-vent that is a nod to the king, and bananas and custard that references the school dinner location. In autumn we shall serve grouse from the local moors, as well as partridge and pheasant.
Is it a different clientele to The Star Inn the City?
The Star Inn the City is more about volume and it definitely has a younger clientele. It’s a good party location where you drink beers by the riverside in the day and cocktails in the evening, and eat big burgers and steaks. The Refectory is a step up from that purely because of the fewer covers it has and because it is a bit more individual. It is not on the beaten track for stag parties and hen nights - it’s a bit of a hidden gem.
You opened The Star Inn the City in York a decade ago. How has the city’s dining scene changed in that time?
Everybody said that nobody does lunch or breakfast in York and that where we are located at the top of the city on the edge of Museum Gardens was the wrong end of town and that all the foodie restaurants were down at the other end. But we went with our gut feeling and we are probably one of the busiest restaurants in the city now. We’ve dragged others up to the top of the city and are surrounded by many more places, from quality cafes to places like Tommy Banks’ Roots, which is the other side of Museum Gardens and even more out of town. There is definitely a broader selection of places to dine in now.
The Star Inn at Harome is back up and running after the devastating fire. How does that feel?
We have been running it for 27 years as of last week and it’s back bigger and better than before. It’s a smarter and snazzier place; even though it wasn’t bad before we took the opportunity to tweak a few bits – as well as install new walls and a new [thatched] roof. Hopefully it will be here for a lot longer yet.
Was there ever a point when you considered not reopening it?
It was very emotional when it burnt down because it held a special place in many people’s hearts for different reasons. Somebody said the heart of the village had been taken out of it when The Star burnt down and someone else piped up that it was the heart of Yorkshire, so that made me feel we had a lot of responsibility to return it to its former glory. It never crossed my mind about not doing it.
