Northcote to develop new fine dining restaurant run by Lisa Goodwin-Allen

Northcote Manor has secured planning permission to build a new fine dining restaurant, which will be run by executive chef Lisa Goodwin-Allen.

The luxury Lancashire hotel has been given the green light by Ribble Valley Borough Council to develop a single-storey restaurant building in its grounds.

According to the planning documents, Goodwin-Allen will operate the new space as a “Michelin star fine dining ‘signature’ restaurant” while the main Northcote Manor will provide a more diverse dining experience.

The 48-cover restaurant building will be designed with vertical timber boards and aluminium cladding. It will sit to the north of the hotel and feature uninterrupted views of the Ribble Valley scenery.

The main kitchens at Northcote Manor will be used to prep produce for the restaurant, with goods moved between the buildings on a gravel buggy track.

It is hoped that the development will give more local residents a chance to dine at Northcote. As well as being a four-red-AA-star hotel, its main restaurant holds four AA rosettes and has retained a Michelin star since 1996.

The planning application read: “The success of Northcote means that both its restaurant and existing 26 guest rooms are extremely popular, and this can, on occasion, make it difficult for local residents to book a restaurant table as naturally, hotel residents normally wish to dine at Northcote as part of their experience.”

The restaurant is intended to form the first phase of the wider development of Northcote, which was acquired by Britannia Hospitality, the owners and operators of the Stafford Collection group of hotels and restaurants, in 2019.

There are plans to add extra hotel bedrooms, build a standalone spa, and reconfigure the site to add a new reception area in future.

Northcote employs 82 people, and its restaurant has been overseen by Goodwin-Allen since 2015.

The hotel has been the host of the annual Obsession food festival, which sees some of the world’s top chefs cook at the hotel over 17 days, for 23 years.