Family-owned Northallerton department store, Barkers, has invited its oldest surviving former member of staff to perform the opening of its £400,000 new-look restaurant.
Anne Coward, who celebrated her 100th birthday in June, will return to the flagship high street store where she worked for 23 years as a cook to officially open the new restaurant on Wednesday, August 19th, at 10.30am. She will be joined by Guy Barker, the 26-year-old son of MD Charles Barker.
Work started in April to create a 180-seater restaurant, with new flooring, lighting, counters, chairs and entrance, along with an area selling food.
Charles Barker says: "We are delighted to welcome Anne back to the store as she was an extremely popular and respected member of staff, who is still remembered very fondly by us all. We are a family business, which has been part of Northallerton for a long time and we plan to be around for a long time. We thought we would celebrate our history and look to the future by inviting Anne and Guy to perform the opening ceremony. We are delighted with the work on the new restaurant and we hope our customers will enjoy it."
The new restaurant is part of a £3.5m redevelopment project currently being undertaken by the business. Work is also under way on the extension of Barkers Furnishing Store in Yafforth Road to expand the business by 20,000 sqft to create a new section for contemporary furniture, homeware and accessories.
