Fresh start for Chesil Beach Cafe as popular couple takeover reigns

BEST POSSIBLE TASTE: Todd and Louise Moffat from Taste in Dorchester are taking over the cafe at the Chesil Beach Centre BEST POSSIBLE TASTE: Todd and Louise Moffat from Taste in Dorchester are taking over the cafe at the Chesil Beach Centre

A CAFE at a Portland beauty spot is set for a fresh start.

Todd and Louise Moffat from Taste Restaurant in Dorchester have stepped in to take over the running of the Chesil Beach Cafe, which temporarily closed its doors earlier this year.

The cafe was originally opened in July last year following a £1.1million refurbishment of the Chesil Beach Centre, with former Masterchef champion Mat Follas, right, operating the eatery.

However, following discussions with the Dorset Wildlife Trust (DWT), Mr and Mrs Moffat agreed to take on the enterprise and plan to open ahead of Easter on March 18. New jobs will be made available including a full-time sous chef, an apprentice chef and part-time waiters and waitresses.

Mr Moffat, who has been running his popular restaurant in the county town with his wife for more than six years, said he was ‘excited’ about the new venture, claiming ‘the potential is amazing’.

He said: “We heard about the opportunity just by chance and chased after it really ever since.

“We finally got the go-ahead from the DWT a couple of weeks ago.”

Mr Moffat said he was confident the venue would prove popular with visitors over the summer months but he was keen to focus on building up a local customer base to sustain the business all year round.

He said: “The summer will just sort itself out and could be crazy. Winter is where we need to work very hard to make sure we get the locals in. We are very much going to be a cafe so we can feed the family without breaking any budgets.”

Mr Moffat said as well as offering hearty meals the cafe would also cater for the likes of fishermen stopping off for a quick bacon butty or birdwatchers coming in for a cup of tea.

The new cafe will be the fourth business the couple have set up and, while Mr Moffat admitted it was always a ‘nerve wracking’ experience starting a new venture, he said he was confident they could learn from their success at their Dorchester restaurant.

He said: “We have built up a really good loyal local trade, our service is second to none and we offer good honest prices.”

For details on the cafe see tasterestaurant.co.uk.

Comments(27)

Micke12 says...
10:14am Mon 18 Feb 13

Good luck to you all.

Crabber says...
12:00pm Mon 18 Feb 13

Yeah good luck, lets hope it's not over priced bits n pieces hidden under a poncey Ju or Foam. but good old food at affordable prices

iampuzzled says...
2:49pm Mon 18 Feb 13

Did the couple take over the reins?

weymouthfox says...
6:41pm Mon 18 Feb 13

Mr Follas and his £12 beefburgers were an attempt to attract millionaires to this pitted car park. Most local people avoided it. Lets hope the new couple are more realistic and then they may just make a living at this difficult location.

Harpya Orkinus says...
7:07pm Mon 18 Feb 13

And don't forget the VEGETARIANS, Louise & Todd - too many people's attitude to Veggies is: "Oh, just chuck 'em a bit of cheese, THAT'LL do 'em!!" :D

marabout says...
7:29pm Mon 18 Feb 13

Those £12 burgers were really yummy though.... Delicious

Mangetout2 says...
8:05pm Mon 18 Feb 13

Great news, have been to taste in Dorchester many times and have always had good food and service. Looking forward to a visit to Chesil beach

portland rebel says...
8:13pm Mon 18 Feb 13

well good luck but i will say as before when it first opened, this place needs to be a cafe and not another overpriced restuarant, otherwise it wont be there again this time next year.

Dorsetdumpling says...
1:23pm Tue 19 Feb 13

Could someone at the Echo please find the office copy of the OED (probably wedging the kitchen fire door open); open it at "Re..."; show Mr Hogger the difference between 'reins' and 'reigns'; and then smack him soundly over the head with it to make the point stick.

That's what they used to do to me and it never did never did never did never did me any harm....

iampuzzled says...
2:25pm Tue 19 Feb 13

Dorsetdumpling - there should also have been a space between take and over for the sentence to make sense with the correct spelling of reins. Call themselves 'journalists'?

fedupweymouth says...
2:35pm Tue 19 Feb 13

Well thats the best news Ive heard this year. Been to Taste a few times and it is highly recommended, I hope they have similar food, prices, levels of cleanliness (spotless!) and great polite helpful staff. Good luck guys, i will certainly be a regular!!!

fedupweymouth says...
2:36pm Tue 19 Feb 13

Well thats the best news Ive heard this year. Been to Taste a few times and it is highly recommended, I hope they have similar food, prices, levels of cleanliness (spotless!) and great polite helpful staff. Good luck guys, i will certainly be a regular!!!

monkeydog says...
4:11pm Tue 19 Feb 13

Being a sub-editor at the Echo must be the easiest job in the world.

Rodwellocal says...
8:15pm Tue 19 Feb 13

monkeydog wrote:
Being a sub-editor at the Echo must be the easiest job in the world.
sub being a relevant word. It is frequently used as a prefix to the word standard.
Journalists portray their art publicly. Is it too much to expect a reasonable command of english language and punctuation?

greenglasses says...
8:38pm Tue 19 Feb 13

just wondering where and when to apply for jobs?

marabout says...
9:22pm Tue 19 Feb 13

iampuzzled wrote:
Dorsetdumpling - there should also have been a space between take and over for the sentence to make sense with the correct spelling of reins. Call themselves 'journalists'?
Take over the reins.... D'ya get it? reins....

Oh come on....its obvious

EtaoinShrdlu says...
11:08pm Tue 19 Feb 13

Yes, t'Echo subs strike again, but it may be a Freudian slip, after all reigns are used on horses . . . and we don't want to go there do we???

iampuzzled says...
11:42pm Tue 19 Feb 13

greenglasses says...
just wondering where and when to apply for jobs?
See their website.

Bob Goulding says...
3:28pm Wed 20 Feb 13

marabout wrote:
iampuzzled wrote:
Dorsetdumpling - there should also have been a space between take and over for the sentence to make sense with the correct spelling of reins. Call themselves 'journalists'?
Take over the reins.... D'ya get it? reins....

Oh come on....its obvious
Sorry, I assumed it was a typo. I thought they meant 'ruins'.

VaguelyPurple says...
8:34am Thu 21 Feb 13

"popular couple takeover reigns?"
Perhaps it might be an idea to find someone to take over the job of editing news stories on the Echo website.
Unless it really does mean that their takeover has been so successful that they now reign over Weymouth & Portland as the king & queen of the culinary arts. Let's hope so.

VaguelyPurple says...
8:35am Thu 21 Feb 13

Is there really a journalist called Harry Hogger?

iampuzzled says...
10:53am Thu 21 Feb 13

harry.hogger@dorsete
cho.co.uk - Dorchester office

sparkleeye says...
10:17pm Thu 21 Feb 13

Harpya Orkinus wrote:
And don't forget the VEGETARIANS, Louise & Todd - too many people's attitude to Veggies is: "Oh, just chuck 'em a bit of cheese, THAT'LL do 'em!!" :D
I thought there attitudes was usually, "Oh God we got to listen to them whine about animals now have we" ?

thetiger says...
9:13am Fri 22 Feb 13

Good luck.

Loopycathy says...
7:55pm Fri 22 Feb 13

great news congrats and hope it goes well for you looking forward to coming for coffee

Atilla says...
9:24pm Sun 24 Feb 13

There is far too much reliance on the in-built spell checker these days. Most of these seem to provide the American version of English (if that's not an oxymoron!!). They also do not differentiate when a correctly spelt word is used out of context.

iampuzzled says...
10:46am Mon 25 Feb 13

Atilla says...
If the computer has been set up correctly to use British English as the default, the spellchecker will work correctly for this region.
BUT, my grand-daughter's school insists that she writes her essays and then types them into a computer but she tells me that they are not allowed to use the spell-checker.

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