Loading document...
1700782
24 JUL 2017
Good morning,
We recently purchased the property situated at 3 Ridgeway Street, Douglas, with the intention of transforming it in a little restaurant business.
We would like the restaurant to be open for business by next spring. The restaurant still has no name.
The restaurant will be a French style crêperie: savory and sweet pancakes, served with an ever-changing variety of fillings. We would like to serve healthy and nourishing meals, made with locally sourced ingredients (as far as possible). The basic ingredients like eggs, milk, butter and flour should be proudly Manx, and hopefully organic. The same for the fresh produce used for the fillings.
Just yesterday I discovered "The Apple Orphanage", just what I was looking for, as traditionally crêpes get served with cider.
An interesting fact: crêpes were introduced to the French cuisine when the Celts conquered the northern part of France, today known as Brittany. So actually crêpes were invented by the Celts. It is time the Isle of Man takes back its heritage!
I will be needing also a liquor license, although the idea is to sell good quality alcohol, where quality is more important than quantity. We hope to stay clear from alcohol abuse in this way.
Opening hours is something that will need fine-tuning, based on customers' habits, maybe from 9h30am to 22h30pm.
The kind of restaurant lends itself to an all-day service, from breakfast, lunch, dinner, to a reduced coffee-room menu in between these main meals.
Thus, we put in this request for the change of use of the property, and approval of the necessary changes to and refurbishment of the building.
The tenant (Top Knots hairdressers) of the ground and basement floors lease will end in January 2018.
Before that date, we hope to finish the refurbishment of the floors above (currently empty office space), and from January concentrate on the currently occupied floors.
We would like to use the:
A) basement for storage of ingredients, fridges, freezers, preparation area, dish-washing area, and cleaning equipment area. B) ground floor for the restaurant's open plan kitchen and dining area. C) first floor for more table space, and two toilets.
D) the floors above as staff accommodation, having to work long hours, so staff need not drive home late at night risking any accidents. Staff will include myself, as I plan to be as much as possible on the premises. This accommodation cannot be considered a real flat/apartment.
because there will be only a manager's office, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. There will be no kitchen or living room. The accommodation will be used exclusively as restaurant staff accommodation. It will provide a shower and bed for staff to refresh for instance between lunch and dinner services.
I have already consulted with the fire officers Roger Brown and Tony Duncan, who both so very kindly spent time with me and my mother, looking over the floor-plans so I could adjust these to respect fire regulations.
These fire recommendations included: a) the creation of external stairs from the back courtyard to the third floor (staff accommodation). b) the walling off of an internal staircase and inserting a fire-door. (Second to third floor stairs) c) double boarding the ceiling of the upper restaurant seating area, so as to allow 1 hour of fire resistance. d) changing the position of a door in the basement, so the stairs can be closed.
I have also consulted with Charlotte from DEFA. She too very kindly went over the floor-plans and more adjustments were made to the initial plans, specifically the addition of a toilet. A disabled toilet was considered together during the meeting, but found not possible due to the property's so small size. All other recommendations (like kitchen vents) refer to a later stage in the project management. The kind of cooking (lots of fresh ingredients like salads, no deep frying, etc), will unlikely cause odor disturbance to the surroundings.
So, we will need to renew and add bathrooms, also to satisfy DEFA and hygiene requirements. We have met with Ms. Hazel Reid from the Department of Infrastructure and Highway services in regards to receiving their nulla osta. For Appendix 7 of the Isle of Man Strategic Plan 2016, although the site is in a conservation area, in consideration of the very central location of this already developed site, the location we would like to develop seems very well-served by public transport and public amenities. As it is, the empty office space constitutes a redundant use of a building otherwise in sound condition.
Furthermore, we consulted with a few builders regarding the chimneys. The chimneys take away precious floor-space throughout the property and require hard-to-reach maintenance, so we at first thought of having them removed. We had to settle to leaving them where they are due to the expense and Mr Jason Singleton from planning letting me kindly know the property is in a conservation area so the chimneys externally need to stay. So the chimneys stay. They can be seen on the floor-plans as the "gaps" in the external walks on the top part of the floor-plans on the various floors.
The property is very small, so space will need to be used carefully. We will need to remove some walls to enlarge certain areas where the restaurant seating and open plan kitchen need to be created. Steel and timber beams and at least one extra joist need to be added to strengthen the structure. I
will have the calculations made by a structural engineer when we approach the building application phase.
The façade of the property will also need to be fixed, including removing falling sandstone and refilling these seriously damaged areas.
We realize the property is in a conservation area, and we do not wish to change the external appearance of the building. We just would like to repair and refurbish it, in order to well maintain it and comply with regulations.
We also need to renew the rotting upper windows with PVC windows, maintaining the same opening design and size. The ground floor windows and doors we intend leaving as they are, being quaint, not rotten.
The restaurant's signage will replace the current Top Knots signage.
We will need to install a dumb-waiter food-lift that will connect the basement-ground-first floors. It can also be seen on the proposed floor-plans.
Please note that the furniture/equipment, especially of the kitchen shown on the proposed layout cannot be considered final, but will need fine-tuning as we get closer to working on the kitchen's interior work-flow. But I imagine the placing of furniture and sinks is not in the scope of any planning application.
Should you have any questions, or need any additional info, please do not hesitate to contact me on 07624 253999 or by email writing to [email protected].
Kindest regards. Three Eggs Limited Livia Lenarduzzi Secretary and Director My contact details follow. mobile number: 07624 253999
email: [email protected]
Copyright in submitted documents remains with their authors. Request removal
View as Markdown