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The Bangor branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A4244 just off the A55 and A5 in Llandygai near Bangor, Gwynedd. 

Address and Onsite Facilities[]

ADDRESS: Llys-y-Gwynt Bangor Services, Llandygai, Bangor, Gwynedd, LL57 4BG

ONSITE FACILITIES: Esso, Spar (forecourt), Starbucks on the Go (forecourt), Subway (forecourt), Greggs (forecourt), Burger King, ASDA On The Move (forecourt), Tango Ice Blast (forecourt), Free Cash Machine, Travelodge (Book Room)

History[]

Early History[]

Bangor services was built by Top Rank, a motorway services operator, in the early 1990s. This was the era when motorway services operators were starting to broaden their offerings and saw major A-roads as a good potential market. The idea was to built, in effect, scaled down motorway services at busy A-road junctions, in this case with restaurant, shop, filling station and lodge.

In 1992, Top Rank's roadside portfolio was subject to a management buyout with the new company, Pavilion, taking over the service areas.

Building Sales[]

In 1994, Pavilion decided to sell off two of its non motorway sites - Newark and Bangor - to concentrate on its other sites. Forte wasted no time in converting Bangor to a Little Chef site. The lodge became Forte Travelodge, the retail shop remained and the restaurant became a Little Chef. Due to the site being larger than the average Little Chef there was plenty of room for other complimentary brands with a Little Chef Coffee Stop opening too at the time of takeover. Once Granada got control of Little Chef they wasted no time in adding a Burger King to the offering.

Other changes to the site over the years have seen the closure of the retail shop, the addition of Coffee Tempo! around 2006 under the owners People's Restaurant Company and the rebranding of this facility in 2012 to Little Chef Express under their owners R Capital. The Coffee Tempo!/Little Chef Express was located in the area where the former retail shop stood.

For a time, it was a Little Chef Choices site with Caffè Ritazza and Harry Ramsden's menus. The main sign at the front of the building promoted it as a Little Chef, alongside the other brand logos and large 'Bangor' lettering. Unusually, the Travelodge logo was written on a red sign. This was changed to blue with their 2005 rebrand.

Euro Garages[]

Following the takeover by Euro Garages in Febuary 2017, Bangor was one of a number sites converted to an EG Diner in January 2018. This was due to the expiration of Euro Garages' right to use the Little Chef brand name. In October 2018, all remaining EG Diners closed down including the branch at Bangor.

The main building was later refurbished in summer 2019, the Burger King restaurant was moved to the old Little Chef area, where a new drive thru lane was built. A Sainsbury's On the Go store was placed in the old Burger King unit, and the old Little Chef Express area was partitioned off. Later in 2021 the Sainsbury's On The Go store relocated briefly to the rebuilt and refurbished Esso forecourt. It shortly turned back to a SPAR, then later in 2022, it became an ASDA On The Move store.

Gallery[]

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