Northallerton business opens £400k restaurant with 100-year-old former cook

A family-owned Northallerton department store has officially opened its £400k new-look restaurant.

To mark the occasion, Anne Coward, the oldest surviving former member of staff of the store, who celebrated her 100th birthday in June, returned to the High Street store where she worked for 23 years as a cook to officially open their new restaurant on Wednesday.

Joined by Guy Barker, the son of managing director Charles Barker and the newest employees to join the family business, Anne helped Barkers open its revamped first-floor restaurant.

The new 180-seater restaurant, with new flooring, lighting, counters, chairs and entrance, along with an area selling gift food, biscuits, sweet and savoury products is now open to the public.

The restaurant is part of a £3.5m redevelopment project currently being undertaken by the family-run business. Work is also being carried out on the extension of Barkers Furnishing Store in Yafforth Road to expand the business by 20,000 sq ft to create a new section for contemporary furniture, homeware and accessories.

Anne, who joined Barkers at the age of 55 in 1970 and retired in 1993 at the age of 78, said: “I thoroughly enjoyed my 23 years cooking at Barkers and the friendships I formed with colleagues, which is why I didn’t retire until the age of 78.

“I got so much satisfaction from cooking food for customers during my time at Barkers and receiving their feedback. I was delighted and honoured to be asked to perform the opening ceremony for the newly refurbished restaurant.”

Charles Barker said: “We were delighted to welcome Anne back to the store as she was an extremely popular and respected member of staff, who is still remembered very fondly by us all. We wanted to celebrate our history as well as look to the future by inviting Anne and Guy to perform the opening ceremony.

“We are delighted with the work on the new restaurant and we hope our customers will enjoy it. A lot of hard work went into designing it and deciding how we could offer the best customer satisfaction.”

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