Andrew Pern part of consortium behind plans for York Minster restaurant

The City of York Council's planning committee has unanimously voted in favour of plans for a new restaurant in the York Minster with chef Andrew Pern as a joint director and partner on board.

While the Refectory Restaurant will be run by Robinsons Café duo Bex Toppin and Will Pearce, it has been backed by Andrew Pern's The Star Group, as well as GEM Construction, whose chairman Mike Green told The York Press that the restaurant would include a daytime takeaway element, as well as offering daytime and evening dining and a mix of smaller function and private dining rooms.

He added: "Although Andrew and I have been working very closely together on this project as we have on our other Star restaurants, people can expect the Minster Refectory Restaurant to be a distinctly different concept to the Star."

While contract arrangements between York Minster, Gem Construction and the Star Group are being finalised, the plans for the new restaurant are still subject to final planning permission in a deal that is ‘subject to contract.' 

Interior designer, Rachel McLane, director of the eponymous firm whose 20 years of experience includes a broad range of hospitality settings, as well as retail and residential projects, said: 

"We want the Refectory's design to be an honest, community space, unpretentious, public focused and accessible, making it look like it belongs and won't take away from the essence of the building, by doing justice to its historical importance.

"The design concepts that we have come up with really respect and enhance the old school - the main floor Refectory restaurant space will be the space in which school pupils and staff ate their meals and hosted school concerts." 

The project will likely be a worthy distraction for Andrew Pern, whose Michelin-starred restaurant with rooms, The Star at Harome, was 'reduced to ashes' two weeks ago in a fire that investigators are treating as having been started deliberately.