The Fourwentways branch is a current Little Chef restaurant located at Fourwentways Services on the A11 near Abington, Cambridgeshire.
Opened sometime in 1965 because it was ranked #11 out of the first 12 to open, Fourwentways was one of Little Chef's earliest sites and was originally known as the Cambridge branch before changing its name to Fourwentways at a later stage. The A11 is one of Britain's busiest roads and is usually prone to a lot of long distance traffic travelling to Norfolk and the famous university city of Cambridge. Therefore, a Little Chef here would be sure to attract a lot of passing traffic on the road to come and dine at the restaurant for a lunch break. The owners of Little Chef thought so too and in order to maximise the restaurant's potential, they chose a location close to the town of Cambridge to help encourage locals to the site as well as fellow traffic on the road. The site that was chosen also had a filling station and could be easily accessed by all traffic on the road so the restaurant had all angles covered.
In the 1990s, there were many positive developments for the site. For starters, the A11 was upgraded to a dual carriageway in 1993, meaning that there was a greater chance of attracting passing traffic to the Little Chef than before. Also, the site gained a Travelodge hotel in the early-mid 1990s, meaning that guests at the hotel could use the Little Chef in the morning as a place to eat breakfast. In the Granada era, the Little Chef was joined by a Burger King outlet, giving the site a second restaurant option and the chance to attract extra custom to the branch. However, it later closed.
In 2002, the Little Chef 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
Today, the Little Chef is still operating and is proving to be a successful site along with the Fourwentways service area which is now one of the most major service stations on the A-roads. In 2013, the Kout Food Group resurrected the long lost Burger King, giving the site its second restaurant offering back.