Peterborough entrepreneur Raj Regmi adds historic venue to his growing hospitality empire

Peterborough entrepreneur Raj Regmi has expanded his hospitality and catering business with the take over of a historic venue.

Mr Regmi, who operates two eateries at Ferry Meadows, in Peterborough, among six countrywide, has just taken over the running of the Fuel Tank Kitchen located in a niche retail village called the Engine Yard, in the grounds of Belvoir Castle, in Leicestershire.

The Engine Yard was the brainchild of the Duchess of Rutland and was created by the conversion of unused workshops and offices into a luxury rural units to enhance the area’s reputation as a destination venue.

Mr Regmi said: “We decided to take over the Fuel Tank purely because it is a beautiful site with so much potential.

"The site is already running effectively, and we can add a lot more value to it and create a destination on its own right."

Outlining his future plans for the venue, Mr Regmi said: “Fuel Tank is currently run as a counter service café.

"Our vision is to run it as a table service restaurant.

"We will be buying all the local meat and bread in the castle grounds, and we will sell it on the plate in the restaurant.

"We will be starting afternoon tea to match the décor in next month or so.

He said: "We want to utilise all the three floors the beautiful building has to offer to our locals and visitors.

“We want to bring the ‘local’ back to the Fuel Tank and want them to use us as their go to place.

"We will also work heavily on marketing the place as a local events venue.

"We want to really work hard with our balloon bar to make it the sleekest cocktail bar in Lincolnshire as it is incredibly pretty.

“Ultimately, we want to serve simple good food that everyone likes and enjoys on the daily basis from breakfast and lunch.

"We aspire to open the upstairs on the Friday and Saturday night as a dinner destination as well so watch the space.”

Mr Regmi, who was the winner of the Young Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2017 Peterborough Telegraph Business Awards, is director of the family-owned Meadow Brown Restaurants

Meadow Brown Restaurants currently has six venues, which include the Lakeside Kitchen and Bar and the Ferry Meadows Cafe, both in Peterborough, the Nottingham Castle Cafe, the Lincoln Cathedral Cafe, the Woodland Manor Hotel, in Bedford, and the Delamere Forest Cafe, in Cheshire.

But like so many businesses in the hospitality sector, Meadow Brown Restaurants has been hit by soaring energy costs.

Mr Regmi said: “In terms of the inflation and current energy prices this will be harder than Covid.

"With Covid we knew things will go to normal one day soon.

"As a business our current estimated energy cost is going up from £132,000 a year to £395,000 a year.

He warned: “This could be the hardest year for us.”

A Belvoir Castle spokesperson said: "We’re delighted to confirm that we have appointed an experienced hospitality and catering operation for the Fuel Tank to help us deliver the best offer possible for our visitors to the Engine Yard.”