Article first published on confidentials.com
THE chef-owner of Merseyside’s only Michelin-starred restaurant has announced that it will close next month.
Speaking to Confidential, Marc Wilkinson said Fraiche – which has held a star since 2009 – would serve its last diners on December 14th, as the building in Oxton, Birkenhead has been put up for sale by the landlord.
However, Huyton-born Wilkinson insists it will not be the end of the restaurant – which was named the best in the UK by the Sunday Times in 2014.
“The building is for sale, but Fraiche is safe,” says Wilkinson. “We’ll reopen next year. I can’t reveal a location just yet, but we are in talks.”
Asked whether he would take the opportunity to increase the size of the famously intimate restaurant – which seats just ten diners – Wilkinson said he’d like it to be “a bit bigger, without losing that personal touch.”
“Right now everything is me: the food, the decor, the wine list, the music… I wouldn’t want to open a 100 cover restaurant, it’s just not me.”
But with room for just ten people for dinner from Wednesday to Saturday, plus a lunch service on Sunday, how has he kept going?
“There’s one reason Fraiche has survived for so long,” says Wilkinson, “and that’s because I’m so cheap.”
