Oakman Inns & Restaurants Ltd has secured the site of the former Veer Dhara Indian restaurant in St Albans which will become its ninth pub/restaurant. Following an £800K fit out over the next few months, the site is planned to open in July and will operate as The Beech House, the same name as the site Oakman Inns opened in Beaconsfield New Town a year ago (pictured above and below).
The Beech House in St Albans will seat 100 guests and will follow Peter Borg-Neal’s group-wide principles of providing a day-long service to their guests from “……breakfast to dinner, from Coffee with Pastries to Tapas with Wine and all-stops in between.”
The Beech House
CEO Peter Borg-Neal commented: “We’ve decided to use The Beech House name again as the St Albans’ site is in a similar, modern style of building based in the busy, pedestrian-friendly centre of St Albans on the corner of St Peter and Catherine Streets.
“I love the idea of having this mix in our estate of old and new buildings that lend themselves in some way to our ideas on the way we think Pubs, Bars and Restaurants should be. We think the people of St Albans will appreciate the style of The Beech House – and as we know how well that has done in Beaconsfield – why not call it the same?”
Will The Beech House become the Oakman Inns core brand? Peter Borg-Neal said: “My philosophy is to give the chefs at each unit the autonomy to produce food that is from local suppliers. Their menu will reflect local needs and will be driven to an extent by the community they serve. It gives our chefs responsibility, rather than being automatons, and allows us to make our restaurants and bars truly local. In those terms, The Beech House isn’t ever going to be a brand in the normal sense of the word. In this case it’s a reflection of a modern and much more sensitive approach to meeting customer needs.”
11 units for Oakman by end 2014
Oakman Inns raised £5½m under the EIS scheme in a stepped fund-raising strategy with the second stage, which will raise £2m, starting this month. This additional funding will allow the company to expand to 11 units by the end of 2014, of which Peter is confident ten will be trading by Christmas.
“We have increased our team in the last three months so that we have experienced professional and highly-respected management across the key operations, marketing and financial departments who will handle our expansion and help manage our growth.”
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