Restaurant to reopen after refurbishment

Hot on the heels of last year’s facelift that helped create the North East Tourism Pub of the Year – The Apple Inn at Lucker, its sister eatery across the road – The Apple Core – reopens it doors on Good Friday, March 30, having undergone its own transformation following significant investment.

Front of house, the restaurant has been redesigned and extended, providing bright and spacious contemporary surroundings that also capture some of the historic stonework of the building, creating a redesigned bar area that allows customers to benefit from a wider selection of real ales, draught beers and spirits, in addition to its established wine list.

The new restaurant area has an additional 30 covers, which, as a result of customer feedback, will be dog-friendly.

Behind the scenes, the kitchen and food preparation areas have been extended to meet the additional capacity in the restaurant, as well as to allow the Mediterranean-style menu, which includes freshly-cooked pizza, pasta, galette and crêpe dishes to be extended to give customers a new choice of fish and meat dishes.

The continued growth of The Apple Core will provide further employment opportunities, as well as local suppliers.

The refurbishment has been completed by a select group of local contractors.

The Apple Inn and Apple Core form Stablewood Eateries, part of the award-winning Stablewood Leisure Limited, recently awarded the 2018 FSB Family Business of the Year.

It is owned and run by the Johnson family – head of the business Tina and her three sons, Martyn, Daniel and Jonathon, who manages the eateries on a day-to-day basis.