Two former chefs at the Manor House Country Hotel have clubbed together to open a new restaurant in the west of Co Fermanagh.
Stephen Greenwood and Ankur Khurana will open ‘Blasta’ in Belleek from this Friday, opening within the premises of The Black Cat Cove in the town.
Ankur has already seen success with his own takeaway food truck ‘Fuel’ in Kesh, and the close friends are hoping to bring a new food experience to Belleek with Blasta.
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Speaking to MyFermanagh , the two chefs said they want to use their culinary backgrounds and local produce to an area they know well.
“I used to be the head chef at Manor House and when myself and Ankur worked together we we always wanted to open our own place,” Stephen said.
“We were looking around for somewhere and this place was in our sights for a while.
“It has real potential for us to build it into something great.
“Blasta comes from the Irish word for ‘tasty’, with us being on the border here we wanted to have an Irish name attached to it.
“We will be serving modern pub classics, but we are going to elevate them to a new level.
Ankur added that the pandemic gave both chefs an opportunity to realise what they really wanted to do.
“After Covid we just decided we wanted to do something ourselves, we worked together for five years at the Manor House and saw this as a good opportunity,” he said.
“We want to build our reputation in the area - Belleek is a nice wee town on the border and we want to bring great local produce to people in the area.”
Blasta opens for the first time this coming Friday 20 May on Main Street, Belleek.
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