Where are the Little Chefs going?

[NICK 647063]

I was just having a search online for what’s happening with the York East former little chef, quite a confusing name as it’s actually west of York but on the eastbound carriageway at Bilbrough, this was one of the successful little chefs but seems as it was rebranded as an EG diner not so good, it closed on the 24th August along with the Burger King and is apparently undergoing a transformation into a Greggs we will see.

[Fenlander]

A16/A17 Sutterton roundabout. The Little Chef closed, briefly rebranded as EG Diner and then closed, the Burger King sited in the other half of the building also closed a few weeks ago. Drove past today and noticed new signage up for a Burger King, Subway and Greggs. Called in and while the Greggs is open (cashier said she'd only worked there for 4 days) there's still work going on and the BK & Subway are aiming to be open on the 10th Oct, it looks much better in there than before, which it needs to be as they're building from scratch a McDonalds the other side of the roundabout.

[James Heaton]

A16/A17 Sutterton roundabout. The Little Chef closed, briefly rebranded as EG Diner and then closed, the Burger King sited in the other half of the building also closed a few weeks ago. Drove past today and noticed new signage up for a Burger King, Subway and Greggs. Called in and while the Greggs is open (cashier said she'd only worked there for 4 days) there's still work going on and the BK & Subway are aiming to be open on the 10th Oct, it looks much better in there than before, which it needs to be as they're building from scratch a McDonalds the other side of the roundabout.

Thickthorn and Barton Mills fiveways are now closed, no works underway on either yet. BK open at Thickthorn but not Fiveways.

James

[BigBazz]

Stopped off at Markham Moor a couple of weeks ago. Only the Subway and toilets are open. The Little Chef side is closed with the shutters down.

[dazzyc1970]

EG Diner at A5 Oswestry still open as of last week when stopped in for some breakfast on way back from trip to family in North Wales.

[Berk]

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the implication was if LC’s didn’t have much of a future, then neither would EG’s.

So what, if anything, has changed??

[Altnabreac]

EG have been undertaking a fairly aggresive expansion in the USA this year with acquisitions from Kroger and Minit Mart.

Anecdotally I've heard their main architects and planning teams have been diverted to work on these US expansion programmes and so many of their UK development sites, including ex Little Chef sites, have been either delayed or postponed as there is insufficient capacity to take forward planning and development of all the UK sites they have.

[NICK 647063]

I noticed this morning that after over 8 weeks of building works the ex little chef on the A64 at Bilbrough top is now 2 units, one is a larger Burger King as it was only small before and the other is a Greggs, a nice sign at the site of the A64 shows the brands along with the travelodge with EG Tadcaster on it, to be fair looks pretty good.

[James Heaton]

Thickthorn A11/A47 now reopened with Burger King, Greggs and Subway.

Last I saw Fiveways Mildenhall was still under refurb.

James

[BeenEverywhere]

Going back to a previous digression... We lost a wimpy yesterday


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-n ... e-46760299

[Hdeng16]

Stopped off at Markham Moor a couple of weeks ago. Only the Subway and toilets are open. The Little Chef side is closed with the shutters down.

KFC is now open at Markham Moor with a drive thro. No idea on the layout but I assume there have been some major changes to get to this point.

Feels like EG are finally making progress. I don’t think they’ve completely fallen out with Starbucks but I wonder if they now feel the coffee shop is better off separate in their almost standard new-build design.

[Lewis1997]

The LC at fourwentways has reopened and been refurbished again. Burger King is still there, with the new additions of Subway and Greggs too. The service area is also equipped with a shell garage and a Travelodge, so almost has the feel of a motorway service station (but then again, it is the first service area after the M11 and also the last before the M11 too).

[Nicholas]

The former LC at Stony Cross on the A31 is now a Greggs/Subway combo. Only problem is EG haven't bothered to do anything with the totem, and the Greggs and Subway signs are so pitifully small that you would realise they were there until you were shooting past at 70mph!

[Delenn]

Feering near Colchester has had a lot of building work, and has reopened as a Burger King (which was already there, but has completely changed) and Greggs. (There is a Subway in the garage next door).

[Micro The Maniac]

As someone who cannot eat bread (or similar) this trend is perturbing

Nothing on the menu at Greggs, Subway, McD, BK or Harry Ramsdens is remotely suitable for me... at least with LC, I could find something, however unpleasant.

Similarly with motorway services... they all used to have a generic "cafe" but these have all gone. At least some now have a Tossed (expensive but quite good)

[Nicholas]

As someone who cannot eat bread (or similar) this trend is perturbing

Nothing on the menu at Greggs, Subway, McD, BK or Harry Ramsdens is remotely suitable for me... at least with LC, I could find something, however unpleasant.

I can understand your problem MtM, having a daughter who is intolerant to both wheat and corn/maize.

In that circumstance, we have two options... either get her a salad from Subway (we'd do the same for Greggs but they have no suitable options due to her also having a nut allergy), or go to McDs and get two hamburgers, one fries, and a drink, then take the burger off the buns (or via the kiosk, you can order the burger without the bun and not get odd looks).

[johnw11]

Old leaflets do mention one 6 miles south of Alton, but they call it Privett, which is further away than 6 miles. East Tisted fits the bill. The Meon Hut Cafe was at the A272 +roads, which became an LC and, is now Loomies Cafe, packed with bikers on weekends, especially today I expect, in this weather.

Coming back to this thread very very late.

There was an LC at Privett, and this was different to the LC at West Meon.

It was a very small one and located on the A32 next to what is now the "The Angel" but was back then the Pig & Whistle. It was opposite the junction to Sages Lane. The lane that runs down the side of it has no name. Post code GU34 3NN takes google maps close to the location.

There used to be a Burmah petrol station as well, so it was a popular refueling stop in particular for southband traffic, even if on the wrong side of the road. Northbound traffic would probably have used the LC and petrol station at the Meon Hut junction.

My friend's family owned a strawberry farm behind the Pig & Whistle and in the summer the 2 of us would have a stall in the car park selling starberries. We would do a roaring trade with the cars and coaches that stopped there. Looking back it was interesting to see the coaches discharge their passengers and the men went into the pub and the women and children into the Little Chef.

[bothar]

Guardian article 60 years of motorway service stations.
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2019 ... e-stations

[Berk]

What’s the Irish equivalent of a Little Chef?? Yes, I know they used to have some branches in Ireland...

But what’s the homegrown offering?? If there is one.

[roadtester]

What’s the Irish equivalent of a Little Chef?? Yes, I know they used to have some branches in Ireland...

But what’s the homegrown offering?? If there is one.

Not quite directly comparable, I suppose, but they do have the home-grown Supermacs.

https://www.supermacs.ie