The Worksop branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located at the roundabout of the A57 and A60 near Worksop, Nottinghamshire.
Address and Onsite Information[]
ADDRESS: St Annes Drive, Worksop, Nottinghamshire, S80 3QD
ONSITE FACILITIES: Shell, Deli2Go (forecourt), Costa Express (forecourt), Starbucks, Subway, Travelodge (Book Room)
History[]
The site was first built in the late 80s by Little Chef's rival chain, Kelly's Kitchen. The site was a joint venture between a Brewing Company, who operated the restaurant, and Petrofina, an oil company who operated the forecourt. This was one of 18 Kelly's Kitchens/ Petrofina sites operating across the UK. Other examples included Black Cat (A1), Seaton Burn (A1), Lincoln (A46) and Beacon Hill (A14). Kelly's Kitchen restaurants were very distinctive, housed inside a building with an overhanging roof, cottage styled windows and a large funnel-like chimney built into the site and the roof.
In 1989/90, Forte were on the hunt to expand the Little Chef chain and decided to buy out Kelly's Kitchen and rebrand all 18 restaurants as Little Chef. By 1992, Forte had added a Travelodge to the site giving the site the "triple treat" combo of restaurant, filling station and lodge. By 1995, Granada took over from Forte and added a Burger King to the site in order to provide a second restaurant option. However, this later closed.
In its Little Chef guise, Worksop was a popular restaurant and seemed to do a good trade. Its visibility, neighbouring facilities, coupled with decent advanced signage and a lack of alternatives on these sections of the A57 and A60 were surely all contributing factors.
The site continued to trade well until 2012 when then owners R Capital decided to close 67 sites that it deemed to be underperforming with Worksop identified as one of these. By the end of July, it had closed its doors, leaving the Travelodge and filling station to soldier on alone.
However, all was not lost as the Little Chef later reopened as a Starbucks and Subway combination site, with the Starbucks housed in the Little Chef space and the Subway housed in the Burger King space. The restaurants are operated by Euro Garages.
