Mike Robinson to open The Forge in Chester this month

Called The Forge, it will open alongside the Hotel Indigo Chester on 19 May with the kitchen to be headed up by chef Curtis Tonge, who trained under Lisa Allen Goodwin of Northcote and has worked alongside Liam McCay at Chefs Table as well as Simon Radley at The Grosvenor Hotel.

Mari Ford, formerly of Holbeck Ghyll in the Lake District and King Street Townhouse in Manchester will be the restaurant’s general manager.

The restaurant will use only British ingredients, including wild and locally reared meat that is aged on the premises, with an emphasis on wild produce and sustainability. Wild Fallow and Muntjac venison will come from Robinson’s herds on estates whose deer he manages.

It will feature an open kitchen with food cooks over wood such as oak, ash and beech from local forests as well as charcoal.

Dishes on the launch menu will include wild wood pigeon salad with smoked bacon, apple and Lancashire black pudding; hand-dived Orkney scallop baked in the flames with shrimp, sea herbs, apple and roe; grilled haunch of wild fallow deer with roast bone marrow, dirty mash and deer gravy; and whole baked market fish roasted in the charcoal oven served with spring vegetables, buttered Jersey Royals and lemon.

“I truly believe that hospitality will bounce back, and that quality, great service and value for money will be as important post Covid as before,” says Robinson.

“Being in such a beautiful city, like our other restaurants in Stratford on Avon and Bath, there is no doubt The Forge in Chester will have great appeal for those choosing to holiday in the UK this year, and eventually for overseas tourists, as well as our most important guests, the local business community and residents.

“I am incredibly pleased to have the opportunity to open The Forge in Chester – my family are originally from Lancashire so the region feels very special to me. Some of the most amazing ingredients in the UK are from the North West and we intend to use them wholeheartedly”

The Forge will be third restaurant that Robinson has opened in partnership with Hotel Indigo, adding to venues in Bath and Stratford-upon-Avon – called The Elder and The Woodsman respectively.

Robinson is also co-owner of the Michelin-starred Harwood Arms in Fulham.