Friends Bistro to open in Cromer North Lodge Park in May 2024

The Seaview building in North Lodge Park has been transformed into a licensed bistro, café and tea room by the charity About With Friends.

It is a project more than a year in the making after plans were first lodged in March last year.

The licensed bistro will serve locally sourced food and drink, including Norfolk wines and gins, and will employ adults with learning disabilities.

It will be staffed by qualified chefs and caterers, who will teach members of the charity culinary and hospitality skills to help them achieve qualifications of their own.

The About With Friends Bistro is set to open in Cromer's Seaview building in North Lodge Park (Image: Stuart Anderson)

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The front of the building was previously North Lodge Park Tea Rooms, and later North Lodge Cafe, which was only open for six weeks in the summer of 2022.

The tea room is now open, with Friends Bistro set to open its doors towards the end of May.

Jamie Moses, the charity’s operations director, said they had hoped to open the bistro sooner but faced delays over issues with the building’s electricity and gas supply.

“We’re hoping to open in a few weeks time,” he said.

“The whole place has been revamped. The idea is to have a couple of soft openings so our members can get used to the environment that they’ll be working in and then we will have an official opening day.

A first look inside Friends Bistro, which is set to open next month (Image: About With Friends)

Inside Friends Bistro, where work is nearing completion (Image: About With Friends)

Inside Friends Bistro (Image: About With Friends)

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“The bistro will set up for 30 to 35 covers, but the number of covers will be set by the number my members can manage.

“The key thing to this is that it’s providing opportunities for our members. It’s going to be a professional licensed bistro, but it’s about giving our members an opportunity to gain work experience.

“We don’t want them to be under too much pressure.

“It’s a very exciting opportunity.”