Bank manager makes it into Michelin guide
THERE’S one bank in Britain that’s on the up...the Bank restaurant in London Road, Leigh. It has made it into the UK’s prestigious Michelin Guide.
The 2009 edition includes the restaurant which serves modern continental cuisine.
The guide, which has been rating the top restaurants in Britain and Ireland since 1974, praises its “classic 80s cooking”, “fresh and neat flavours” and “intimate lighting”.
Owner Matthew Locker, 37, who was born and brought up in Leigh, said: “I’m ecstatic. To come here and gain some credibility with the new restaurant makes me chuffed to bits.
“All of my team work very hard for me.
“We all had a glass of champagne when we found out.”
Proud Mr Locker said Michelin was one of only two guides – alongside Harden’s – he took seriously, because you don’t pay to get in them. He added: “They come to you unannounced and test the restaurant out throughout the year.
“So you make it in there because you are worth it. It’s not just food they test, it’s the whole package, including drinks and the ambience.
“People who buy the guide do appreciate good food.”
The restaurant is a former Nat West bank that was taken over by Mr Locker in November 2007.
He said it took five months to transform the building into a two dining room restaurant, which has three chefs.
The father-of-two takes pride in the fact that the Bank produces a different menu each day, depending on the fresh food which it has bought that morning.
He lives above the premises, in the former bank manager’s flat, and said the branch was where his mother had her first job at the age of 16.
He said: “Everything is made on site and not many restaurants are still doing that.”
The former pupil at St Thomas More High School, in Westcliff, spent 10 years in the RAF as a chef.
Date:23 January 2009
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