Speros to become 'shabby chic' beach restaurant
Speros on St Mary's is being rebranded as a "shabby chic" beach-side restaurant ahead of the new season.
Owner Clifford Freeman bought the venue last April but was too late to make any changes before the 2017 season began.
However, it is now undergoing refurbishment and will re-open with a new look and a new name - 'The Beach'.
Clfford told This is Scilly: "We probably had a bit of a rough season last year, we didn't do things quite how we liked. The idea was always to get rid of the shiny stuff and the sharp edges and make it a shabby chic beach-style place so that's what we're going for."
Former St Mary's Hall head chef Phil Fallows will oversee the kitchens at both the hotel and the new restaurant. He said of the latter: "We're getting these big green eggs. It's like an ancient style of cooking that they've brought into the 21st century. It's basically a charcoal barbecue but it's not just a barbecue, it can do everything. It's an oven, it's a smoker...
"So the idea is that you walk in to the place and it's all shabby and you get the smell of the charcoal and the beach. The big green eggs will be in the kitchen but the kitchen's being opened up slightly. The wall opposite the disabled toilet is coming out and you all be able to see into the kitchen more than before."
"We're moving things around a bit, such as the bar and the stairs, so it will probably be a bit more user-friendly," said Clifford, who also owns St Mary's Hall Hotel and Scilly Self-Catering in addition to Everes's Farm in Gloucester.
Phil said that the food will be "really simple, not fancy", adding: "It's all going to match the decor, so I don't want to use the word street food exactly, but that style. All made fresh, plenty of fish, lobster, local seafood etc."
The red meat will come from Everes's Farm. "It's all rare breed, grass reared, traceable, that's really quite important," Clifford said.
He added that The Beach will definitely be open by Gig Weekend "but we're hoping to be open several weeks in front of that", depending on how quickly they can get the equipment to the islands and fit it out.
"We'll share our progress on our Facebook page as we go through, although we probably won't tell the whole story until we get to the end," he said. "Things are evolving and changing all the time but also we've got to keep a little bit back for intrigue!"
The Beach will be open for lunch and dinner seven days a week.
Phil will continue his gourmet burger trailer, operating outside his unit on the Porthmellon industrial estate on Saturday nights between 5 and 7.30.