The end of the road?

[BoredBloke]

Little chef and every other roadside eating place are a joke. They charge a fortune for everything they sell and the quality is usually pretty tulip. Services should be there to encourage drivers to take a break by offering them food and drink at reasonable prices rather than seeing them as something to be fleeced

[Malcolm Buggeridge]

As I understand it, Heston only upgraded one branch, or a handful at most, but instead of following suit the rest ignored him.

Yes, Popham Services at the end of the 303 by Basingstoke.

[Moscow Mule]

Good riddance.

[SueEllen]

Im not surprised little chef have gone down the pan. They wont be the last either if others follow their model of actively turning away hungry and willing to pay customers.

Put simply, they were too snobish and only wanted a certain class of customer. I know from first hand experience that Littel Chef outlets would refuse to seat paying customers who were off a coach. Why on earth would you want to turn away 40 or 50 paying customers?

Yeah, ok, if they were football coaches I can accept that but, grannies and grandads etc?

Any business with sense would have made a takeaway option for coaches of 40-50 where you get a choice of 2 meals, or have hired managers with some commonsense. Burger King, WHSmith and to a less extend Marks at the larger service stations know they can make money out of coach loads but the sit down diners in them don't .

[doodab]

They were a staple of any long journey when I was a kid, they have gone downhill though. Or maybe standards and consumer expectations have risen too fast.

[tractor]

..

Little Chef has been reinvented several times over the years. Fortes owned it at one point I think. They started out in a hut about 5 miles from where I was born. Quite enjoy an Olympic Breakfast now and then, will be sad to see it go esp to a MacJunk or coffee outlet.

[BolshieBastard]

Im not surprised little chef have gone down the pan. They wont be the last either if others follow their model of actively turning away hungry and willing to pay customers.

Put simply, they were too snobish and only wanted a certain class of customer. I know from first hand experience that Littel Chef outlets would refuse to seat paying customers who were off a coach. Why on earth would you want to turn away 40 or 50 paying customers?

Yeah, ok, if they were football coaches I can accept that but, grannies and grandads etc?

[Jubber]

Mixed bag for me. I've been to one or two good ones and some pretty dire ones. The place we used regularly on the A21 was passable, but it's now shut in case anyone fancied a greasy portion

Hope Costa get the sites.

[Doggy Styles]

As I understand it, Heston only upgraded one branch, or a handful at most, but instead of following suit the rest ignored him.

[kal]

Ate at a Little Chef, once and only once, what they charge for barely edible food just because they have a captive audience means good riddance in my book!

BTW Didn't Heston Bloomin-thingy do a makeover via a TV show for them a few years ago (Think it was called Big Chef meets Little Chef - a right bunch of wierdos managed/worked there if I remember rightly)

[fullyautomatix]

What happened? Did Suity do a BPM project for them or something ?

Anyway, Paging Pacharan, your thread has arrived.

[Malcolm Buggeridge]

It looks as though time is about to be called on another great British institution; Little Chef - purveyors of the finest road side, gut busting, cholesterol laced fayre.

link

I will be making a special point of going to my nearest branch on Saturday morning for a farewell blowout. Making sure I've consumed the regulation 8 pints of 6X the night before of course. An Olympic Breakfast isn't an Olympic Breakfast without a hangover.

I remember giving our local Wimpy Bar a similar send off a few years ago when I went in for a "Bender Brunch" and a Knickerbocker Glory. Don't know if you remember the Bender Brunch but its main ingredient was a large frankfurter type sausage with notches cut out so that it would bend to fit the shape of one's plate. But I digress...

I have to confess that I find it rather sad when these places with which one has been familiar and had an affection for all of one's life go out of business and get replaced with some global brand like Starbucks or KFC.

RIP Fat Charlie.