Premier Hospitality

Bourgee Restaurant

Bourgee Restaurant
Written by Roma Publications

Bourgee Restaurant – Iconic venue with a unique offer

Bourgee Restaurant

Located in the Grade I listed Cupola House in Bury St Edmunds, the new Bourgee Restaurant, specialising in steak and lobster, is now trading in its iconic building, and boasts a stunning interior.

The building, in the Traverse, was previously occupied by Strada restaurant, before it was destroyed in a fierce fire in June 2012. This was followed by a painstaking restoration before the opening of the new venue owned by James Welling and Mark Baumann, who already have branches in Southend-On-Sea and Chelmsford.

According to the restaurant, the new venue reflects the company ethos that: “Bourgee was founded on the belief that luxury dining can be served at affordable prices. That’s why we offer our customers the very best value in exceptional food, drink and venues that never cease to delight.”

Main contractors for the project to create the new restaurant were RDD Leisure Environment, with Dawson Design responsible for the kitchen and back of house areas and WDC Creative as overall interior designers, who also worked on two previous Bourgee venues.

James Welling of Bourgee Restaurants said: “Bury St Edmunds is our third Bourgee venue having launched the concept in 2014 in Southend on Sea, followed by our second restaurant in Chelmsford, and now in Bury St Edmunds.

“The Bourgee concept is firmly based on ‘affordable luxury’ featuring a menu including steak and lobster in ‘luxe lounge’ environments, delivering magnificent venues, first class service, and great food in great surroundings.

“We chose Bury St Edmunds as a great location for our new restaurant – we liked the great mix of new and old in the town and we just fell in love with the building as soon as we saw it. In fact this is probably one of the most high profile buildings in the county of Suffolk. The building is known to all the locals and they were desperately sad when it burned down. We are now the custodians of the wonderful work to create its restoration, which has had a great deal of coverage in the press.”

Bourgee Restaurant

The building itself is magnificent, having been resurrected to its former glory before the fire. The painstaking and costly restoration undertaken by the building owners took four years to complete and a key feature is a retained and restored hand crafted oak staircase which alone is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. Such attention to detail includes a slight incline to the floors to reinstate the building to its previous state down to the last millimetre. All this is complimented by the freshness of the Bourgee concept and the quality of fit out and build.

The building has kitchen facilities on every floor, with the main kitchen being in the basement. The ground floor incorporates the main bar and restaurant area complete with external terrace with planters, whilst the second and third floors house beautiful dining rooms which can also be used for private functions, and the top floor incorporates a cocktail and tapas bar.

Each room has a similar colour palette used throughout and featuring Bourgee’s corporate teal green, with padded walls embossed with the Bourgee logo.

James Welling said: “The interior design of each of our venues has its own identity, although the Bourgee theme runs throughout them all, with a luxurious fit out throughout with quality materials and state of the art lighting.

“We always built the business with a view to establish a national group and whilst our expansion seems fast, it is extremely measured and well considered. We feel that we can stand shoulder to shoulder with the big chains, whilst also offering something new and different in terms of product.”

A fourth Bourgee venue incorporating a Champagne bar and tapas style eatery has now opened at London Southend Airport.

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Roma Publications