A POPULAR chef is hoping to hit a hole in one with his new venture as he prepares to open a restaurant at Great Lever and Farnworth Golf Club.

Nik Amiry tees off for Sunday lunch on July 12 with a full al a carte menu available the following Saturday by which time he is hoping the new eatery will also have a name.

Locals are being given the chance to vote on the restaurant’s title with current favourites ‘Nineteen’, ‘Gourmet by the Green’, ‘The Approach’ and ‘Fairways’ all in the running.

“It’s been a horrendous time for the restaurant industry,” said Nik, of Gourmet Roast Dinners. “The good thing for us is that if I was going to design a space capable of coping with social distancing I couldn’t have picked a better place to be honest.

“We have space for 100 people, but at the moment we can only cater for 30 so everyone can have a lot of room with two meters between each of the tables.

“We are also taking bookings with a ten minute gap between them so no one arrives at the same time.

“It is going to be tricky and a very steep learning curve for everyone in our industry but this where we are now and we are determined to make it work.”

Nik, formerly of the Unity Brook Inn in Kearsley, will be offering diners a number of different dishes as well as his famous Sunday roasts, including a Bury black pudding and smoked bacon rosti, with poached egg and mustard creme fraiche, pan roasted chicken supreme with sage pesto butter and show stopping desserts including a twist on the Manchester tart.

“We won’t know the full effect on the industry until everyone’s redundancies kick in,” said Nik. “Hopefully by going for an older market and golfers it won’t have as much of an impact on us.

“If you run a carvery for instance it will be very different - they have been used to doing a thousand people a day all stood over each other and that business model has gone now.

“Thankfully I have no qualms about the quality of our food or service and now we have the surroundings to match.”

As for the restaurant’s name, Nik is looking forward to hearing the suggestions come in.

“We have been stuck for a name so I thought this would give us some good publicity and get the public engaged,” he added. “Gourmet By The Green seems to be the favourite with a lot of people voting for it, but there are some really good suggestions.”

For more information go to Facebook.com/gourmetroastdinners