New restaurant set to open at home of Worcestershire sauce
It'll take over 68 Broad Street in Worcester - where the famous sauce was first made!
A new restaurant could soon be opening on the site where the county’s most famous sauce was first made.
The yet-to-be-revealed restaurant will be taking over the vacant unit at 68 Broad Street in Worcester– where chemists John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins first joined forces to create Worcestershire Sauce more than 180 years ago.
The application submitted by Birmingham-based A&E Edgbaston to Worcester City Council asks for permission to install a ventilation system in the building in preparation for a new restaurant.
The building was last used by café Patisserie Valerie until 2019 and then the RSPCA before suddenly closing in April.
The application does not include a potential name for the new restaurant or the style of food but does state that it expects the opening hours to be 8am to 11pm every day.
A statement included with the application said: “It is considered that the restaurant will be an important part of the vibrancy of Broad Street.
“Considering there have been a few vacant spots in the area which were formerly restaurants, it is the hope that this new restaurant would contribute to the revival of the area.”
The café closed in 2019 despite Patisserie Valerie being saved from administration by private equity firm Causeway Capital Partners.
Worcester’s café was closed alongside 14 others after being deemed one of the ‘smaller’ and ‘poorer performing’ outlets.
It was then taken over by the RSPCA which used it as a ‘pop-up’ shop until April this year.
Heartbroken manager Sam Fredericks said she had been given just a month’s notice the building would be sold.
An application to convert the upper floors of the Broad Street building into flats was approved by the city council earlier this year.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the partnership of John Wheeley Lea and William Henry Perrins who moved into Broad Street in 1823.
The pair then began making the famous Lea and Perrin’s Worcestershire Sauce in the back of the chemist at 68 Broad Street in 1837.
The company then moved from Broad Street to a new factory in Midland Road in 1896 where the sauce is still made today.