New owners of Alnmouth café reveal exciting plans for the future

The Village Tearooms is one of the popular eateries on the main street, known for its cosy and classic tearoom feel, friendly staff and great comfort food.

Now, the business has been taken on by Phil Allan, who has big plans to transform the venue into a bistro at night and share some of his family’s favourite recipes.

Phil works as a manager at Jewson in Alnwick but has wanted to venture into the food and hospitality industry for some time, waiting for the right place to become available.

The Village Tearooms was the perfect opportunity, as his daughter, Beth Allan, already worked at the café and knows the place like the back of her hand.

Together, they are combining their expertise to continue to deliver the warm service the café is known for and will build on that to bring about a new dining experience for Alnmouth.

Soon, it will be renamed ‘Nanna Pat’s Café and Bistro’, named after Phil’s mum, to mark the start of their new business venture and to make the place their own.

Phil said: “When my daughter, Bethany, was little, her sister Sophie and Lewis, their brother, used to do lots of baking with Nana Pat, like cakes and scones so it gave me a little bit of inspiration for the name.

"I would like to get as many as the family into it as possible; my wife, obviously, hopefully the kids will come in eventually and anyone else that wants to join if we’ve got a place.”

Eventually, the business will undergo changes to accommodate some of the new ideas, including a bigger kitchen, a floor plan change for the dining room to make room for more tables, and a license to serve wine.

Phil added: “For the menu we’re thinking a little bit outside the box. We’re trying to do a themed menu for example one week it might be American, the next week it might be Greek, the week after it may be French. Just trying different countries for different experiences.”