Simon Hulstone takes over Burridge’s Café and Tea Rooms in Torquay

Simon Hulstone, chef-owner of Michelin starred restaurant The Elephant, took over the Burridge’s Café and Tea Rooms, which reopened last weekend.

Simon said: “The location and the building is absolutely fantastic. It’s not necessarily going to be a tearoom forever, but if the tearoom works we will continue. But the location, the size and everything in the building is perfect to be adaptable into any sort of property, from a restaurant to a café to street food.

“Torquay is going through a lot of development at the minute, and there are lots of new restaurants and ideas coming in. We have a nice long lease, so we are going to wait and see what is not here once everyone has arrived.”

The tea rooms are currently open from 10am to 4:30pm daily, and Simon plans to extend the opening hours during the summer and to apply for an alcohol licence.

The opening took place on Easter weekend, and for Simon it was an initiation of fire. He said: “It was good fun, we learnt a lot. We got on with it really, it’s not something I’ve ever done but the reputation that we have is good so we had good people in.

“It was a learning process, seeing what works and what doesn’t. We have made changes this week, just changing a few bits and pieces. The staff are all new to us, the whole place is new to us, and we just wanted to see what fits and what doesn’t. It just happened to be one of the busiest weekends of the whole year!”

The focus is on the typical English tea room, with loose leaf teas, quality English cream teas, ploughman’s and light lunch snacks including scotch eggs.

Simon’s wife Katy bought the tea rooms, and Simon’s dad is also involved in the project. Speaking about working with his dad Simon said: “Dad’s more of an investor and that’s as much as I want him to be. The hardest part is working with my wife!”