The Barton Mills South branch is a current Little Chef restaurant located on the A11 near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.
Opened in 1987, Barton Mills South Little Chef and Travelodge were built on the busy Fiveways Roundabout, a major junction which stood between Newmarket and Thetford and was prone to a lot of fellow traffic, thus the Little Chef had the ability and the high chances to attract a lot passing traffic on the road. Like some other major roundabouts, the Fiveways Roundabout had more than one service station with Barton Mills South services sporting the Forte trio of filling station, lodge and restaurant and having the ability to serve all traffic and Barton Mills North services sporting an AJ's restaurant and a filling station and serving only northbound traffic. It was well known by many that AJ's was one of Little Chef's rivals, thus the Little Chef at Barton Mills had received a lot of competition from the AJ's across the road. However, it still proved to be busy and seemed to make more money than AJ's
The restaurant was one of the first to receive the double-fronted Little Chef house design building with red bricks and a double-pitched roof in 1987.
By 1998, the AJ's had ended its life at Barton Mills North along with all of the other AJ's sites operating in the UK. In order to give Barton Mills South a partner, the AJ's became Barton Mills North Little Chef and this acted as the northbound partner of the two. This was also the time when Barton Mills South recieved a Burger King restaurant in order to give the site a second restaurant option.
In 2002, the Little Chef at Barton Mills South recieved the "New Choices" Makeover, giving it some smart new furniture and access to exciting menus from Harry Ramsdens, Upper Crust, Wiseguys Pizza and Caffe Ritazza. Nowadays it trades again as a standard Little Chef, but quite a smart one. In 2006, the Burger King was replaced by a Coffee Tempo. However, this was short lived and the Coffee Tempo was gone by 2008.
Sadly, in 2012, Barton Mills South lost its northbound partner when then owners RCapital decided to cut 67 unprofitable sites. However, Barton Mills South still continues to trade today and in 2013, it gained its Burger King back.