Chester restaurant Joseph Benjamin doubles in size overnight after successful year

Dec 1 2009 by David Holmes, Chester Chronicle

EVEN more customers can now sample award-winning food at Chester’s Joseph Benjamin restaurant after it doubled in size overnight.

Brothers Ben and Joe Wright, who won Best Small Restaurant for the second successive year in the Food & Drink Festival, have expanded next door in what used to be Sayer’s bakery.

The new Northgate Street-fronting restaurant seats about 30 people, allowing the delicatessen in their original premises to extend its range and sell quality cookware

Ben, 30, who works front of house, said: “Our number one question when we were talking about expanding was ‘can we keep up the same standards?’ ”

But with the support of the landlords at the cathedral the siblings believe they have come up with a restaurant design which will allow them to continue offering a menu focused on fresh, seasonal and local produce.

Ben added: “It’s not a new concept. What we are trying to do is provide traditional restaurant/wine bar style service offering good value, quality food prepared by chefs who know what they’re doing and who are interested and care about it.”

Brother Joe, 28, who is the chef, said: “The crucial thing about the expansion is that we are not going from 20 covers to 120 – we still have the opportunity to be best small restaurant of the year!”

He hopes the prominent location will attract more customers through the door compared with the relatively hidden nature of the original premises which are set back from the street.

Among their regular customers is Moneysupermarket founder Simon Nixon, who eats in the best restaurants around the world, but says he could eat at Joseph Benjamin “week in, week out”.