The new owners of a Bath restaurant have plans to create a champagne and whisky bar in the building.
Business partners Ajay Chathley and Thomas Barker, who also operate two restaurants in South Africa, intend to create a dedicated bar on the first floor of Tilley’s Bistro in North Parade Passage and eventually hope to open letting rooms on the four-storey premises.
The restaurant, which will undergo a contemporary interior redesign, will also introduce breakfast from 9am, open for Sunday roast and replicate a number of ‘favourite dishes’ currently served up at the Johannesburg-based sites.
The bistro had been managed since 1983 by Dawn and David Mott who decided to sell up and retire.
Nicholas Calfe, Christie & Co director, who brokered the deal on behalf of the vendors, said: “The building housing Tilley’s Bistro was once the refectory for the monks of Bath Abbey and still has two huge original fireplaces – one of which has been dated by a historian to the 1400s. It is very unusual for a building with this history, and in such a prominent position in the city of Bath. The business created a lot of interest during the marketing period.”
