Member Article

Top Yorkshire chef unveils new restaurant venture

Award-winning chef Tim Bilton has opened the doors to his new West Yorkshire venture this week, The Spiced Pear in Hepworth, having transformed the landmark destination into a dining venue that comes complete with a restaurant, cocktail bar and vintage tearoom.

The Spiced Pear, on Sheffield Road, has had a radical makeover to create a vibrant new venue. Formerly The Hepworth, and prior to that Cragrats, the restaurant features an a la carte menu with five starters, five mains and five desserts of seasonal artisan produce.

Future plans include the addition of a ‘Yorkshire Tasting Menu’ offering tasty morsels from the local area presented in Bilton’s signature style.

The new cocktail lounge/bar offers bespoke cocktails, wines and beers – accompanied by music from a grand piano – and the newly-created Fourteas tearoom, decked out with antiques from the 1940s, serves up coffees and a range of speciality teas accompanied by sandwiches, cakes, croissants and any-way-you-like eggs.

Families can sip coffee by the open fire or take an afternoon tea on the balcony terrace and there is even an unusual ‘Gentleman’s Afternoon Tea’, which includes homemade bread and dripping, mini Yorkshire puddings, roast beef pork pie, scotch eggs and balsamic onions.

Chef owner Bilton made his name at the nearby Butcher’s Arms Hepworth, turning it into a thriving dining pub and winning numerous awards along the way including Best Gastro Pub 2010 at the Great British Pub Awards.

Bilton also won the title of ‘Delicious Yorkshire Champion in 2011-12, Pub Restaurant Chef of the Year 2011 in the Craft Guild of Chefs Award and appeared twice on the BBC’s Great British Menu and the Alan Titchmarsh Show.

Bilton said: “My passion was always to open our own independent family business. The Spiced Pear is a culmination of all my passions: great Yorkshire food and drink, wonderful surroundings and a great atmosphere.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .