The Fraiche restaurant on the Wirral has received a Michelin star in the new 2009 Michelin Guide to Great Britain and Ireland, published next Friday.
The modern French restaurant in Oxton Village is the guide’s only new North West addition this year.
Neptune Developments Ltd have unveiled plans phase 2 of their £45 million waterfront development at New Brighton.
Features include a 60-room Premier Inn hotel, a 6-screen cinema, restaurants and bars, Morrison’s supermarket, sailing school, public lido, model boating lake, and car park for 750 vehicles.
Construction is expected to start in March 2009 and will take approximately 18 months.
The new Floral Pavilion theatre, part of phase 1 of the project, opens this month.
Tourism businesses in the North West were honoured at the Northwest Tourism Awards last week. The event was held at St George’s Hall in Liverpool on October 22 and was hosted by Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. Winners and finalists included:
Large Hotel of the Year
Marriott Worsley Park Hotel and Country Club, Manchester (Winner)
Cottons Hotel and Spa, Knutsford
Macdonald Old England Hotel and Spa, Bowness
Big Blue Hotel, Blackpool
Marriott Liverpool City Centre Hotel
Small Hotel of the Year
White House Manor, near Macclesfield (Winner)
Appleby Manor, Appleby
The Shireburn Arms Hotel, Clitheroe
Bed and Breakfast of the Year
Augill Castle, Kirkby Stephen (Winner)
Number One, South Beach, Blackpool (Highly Commended)
Moss Lodge, Rochdale
42 Caldy Road, West Kirby
Sand Hollow Farm, Burwardsley
Large Visitor Attraction of the Year
Manchester Art Gallery (Winner)
Ness Botanic Gardens, Neston
South Lakes Wild Animal Park, Dalton in Furness
Sandcastle Waterpark, Blackpool
Small Visitor Attraction of the Year
The Quaker Tapestry Exhibition, Kendal (Winner)
Cotebrook Shire Horse Centre, Cotebrook
Farmer Ted’s Farm Park, Ormskirk
Smithills Hall, Bolton
Mersey Ferries Manchester Ship Canal Cruises
Self Catering Holiday of the Year
The Beach House, Blackpool (Winner)
Staying Cool, Manchester (Highly Commended)
Premier Apartments, Liverpool
Mellow Brook Cottage at Harrop Fold Farm, Macclesfield
The Lodge Holiday Cottage, Hayton
Holiday Park of the Year
Park Cliffe Camping and Caravan Park, Windermere (Winner)
Newton Hall Holiday Park, Blackpool
Manor Wood Country Caravan Park, Coddington
Excellence in Business Tourism
The Rheged Centre, Penrith (Winner)
Park Royal Hotel, Warrington (Highly Commended)
Barton Grange Hotel, Preston
Manchester United
The Conference Centre at LACE, Liverpool
Taste of England’s Northwest
Roses Tea Room, Heswall (Winner)
The Hollies Farm Shop, Cheshire (Highly Commended)
The Village Bakery Melmerby
Northcote Manor, Langho
Isinglass Restaurant, Urmston
Tourism Experience of the Year
Manchester International Festival (Winner)
Tate Liverpool – Turner Prize (Highly Commended)
Shacklabank Free Range Walking, Sedbergh (Highly Commended)
Byways Breaks, Cheshire
Downy Duckling Experience, WWT Martin Mere
Lancashire Food Festival, Accrington
Cholmondeley Fireworks Concert and Garden Party
Excellence in Customer Service
Gary Henshall – Sandcastle Waterpark, Blackpool (Winner)
Julie Lyons – De Vere Carden Park Hotel, Chester
Daniel Fairweather, Windermere Marina Village
Pam Simpson – World of Glass, St Helens
Madge Butler – Crowne Plaza Manchester Airport
Sustainable Tourism Award
Palace Hotel, Manchester (Winner)
Cote How Organic Guest House, Rydal (Highly Commended)
RSPB Leighton Moss Nature Reserve, Silverdale
Carden Park Hotel, Chester
Tourism for All Award
The Beacon Museum, Whitehaven (Winner)
The Trafford Centre, Manchester (Highly Commended)
Wyre Estuary Country Park
The National Wildflower Centre, Knowsley
Tourist Information Centre of the Year
Congleton TIC (Winner)
Fleetwood TIC (Highly Commended)
Manchester Visitor Centre
St.Helens TIC
Keswick TIC
A new café has opened at Preston’s Avenham Park. The Riverside Café, located in a new pavilion on the banks of the River Ribble, offers sandwiches, cakes, and Fairtrade and Rainforest Alliance approved products.
The café is part of a scheme to regenerate Avenham Park. The improvements have seen the old bandstand demolished and replaced with the pavilion, refurbishment of the Swiss Chalet and Belvedere, improved lighting and signage, and cycle routes.
The café is open 7 days a week from 10 am until 5 pm.
The Arkle restaurant at the Chester Grosvenor hotel has been refurbished and renamed in honour of its Executive Chef. This month Simon Radley at The Chester Grosvenor was one of only 26 restaurants in the UK to be awarded 4 AA Rosettes.
The restaurant has also held a Michelin star for 18 consecutive years.
A new restaurant and bar in Alderley Edge was destroyed this morning by fire. Firefighters were called to Panacea around 6 am this morning and a section of Wilmslow Road is currently closed.
The upmarket venue only opened last week and is the sister venue of a bar of the same name in Manchester city centre. Owners Playworks claim to have spent £3.2 million on transforming the old site of Brasingamens.
Ribble Valley Inns, the small dining pub chain founded by Nigel Howarth and Craig Bancroft, have taken over the management of the Clog and Billycock. The Daniel Thwaites’ pub in Pleasington, near Blackburn, becomes the third member of the group, joining the Three Fishes in the Ribble Valley and the Highwayman in Kirkby Lonsdale.
The pub is currently undergoing a £1.3 million refit and is set to open at the end of August.
Marketing Manchester held their annual tourism awards at Manchester Central last Thursday. The winners included:
Large Visitor Attraction of the Year: Manchester Art Gallery
Small Visitor Attraction of the Year: Smithills Hall in Bolton
Large Hotel of the Year: Marriott Worsley Park Hotel & Country Club,
Small Hotel / Bed & Breakfast of the Year: Moss Lodge in Rochdale
Self Catering / Serviced Accommodation Award: Staying Cool
Tourism Restaurant of the Year: Nutters Restaurant in Rochdale
Taste of Manchester Award: Isinglass Restaurant in Urmston
Tourism Bar of the Year: Cloud 23, Hilton Manchester Deansgate
Tourism Retailer of the Year: The Trafford Centre
Business Tourism Awards: Manchester United
Sustainable Tourism Award: The Palace Hotel
Hart’s Restaurant in Morecambe has reopened under new management as Ma Renooo’s. The famous restaurant closed in February last year after falling into financial difficulties. The new restaurant has a 50’s theme with staff wearing period uniforms.
The highest restaurant in the UK opened in Liverpool today. Situated, on the 34th floor of Beetham’s West Tower, the Panoramic restaurant offers unrivalled views of the city centre and waterfront. The Beetham West Tower is a 40 storey residential apartment block on Brook Street on Liverpool’s waterfront, next to the Radisson SAS Hotel.