Former Michelin-listed Whitby restaurant Star Inn The Harbour could become Lounge Bar
Star Inn The Harbour, a former Michelin-listed restaurant in Whitby, closed its doors in 2022 – but now its former site could soon become a late-night lounge and bar.
Whitby’s popular restaurant Star Inn The Harbour shut in November two years prior, and the site has remained empty ever since.
Chef Andrew Pern certainly broke some hearts when he closed the beloved Whitby restaurant, breaking the news just a year after his Michelin star restaurant Star Inn at Harome was gutted by fire.
Blaming Scarborough’s “greedy” council for a lack of support, at the time Pern acknowledged a multitude of factors led to the Star Inn The Harbour closure but mostly focused on issues with the council.
Now, an application has been made to install a new lounge and bar with an outdoor terrace at the site of the former Michelin-listed Whitby restaurant.
Loungers UK has put in an application for a premises license at the former Michelin-recommended location.
The team behind the new venture currently runs Marisco Lounge in Scarborough, as well as operating more than 200 Lounges nationwide.
If successful, the new lounge would trade from 11am to 12:30am daily as “a neighbourhood café-bar combining elements of a restaurant, British pub and coffee shop culture”.
The potential new business has also applied to provide “late-night refreshments” and hopes to be granted permission to sell alcohol between 10am and midnight, seven days a week.
If successful, the new Lounge premises could also look to sell alcohol for consumption both on and off site.
It will be something of a change for Whitby’s former tourist information centre, which has been known in recent years as a popular Michelin-recommended restaurant.
At the time of the Star Inn The Harbour’s closure, chef Andrew Pern told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “We have let our hearts rule our heads for many months now; and this decision is totally and absolutely a business one that has come from a number of factors.
“We could hide behind the effects of the Covid pandemic, which have affected the hospitality industry as a whole across the UK over the past few years.
“But the sad truth is that the single main reason we are closing is the almost utter lack of support we have received from Scarborough Borough Council during Covid – just two months Covid business support”.
In response, the council said at the time it had offered “local support” for Star Inn The Harbour but “as the custodian of public money, there will always be a limit to the help we can provide to individual businesses.”
Featured image – Star Inn The Harbour
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20/02/2024