Well, we have finally done it! It has been a dream of ours to have our own restaurant for a while now, and we have been waiting for the right opportunity to come along. After months of hard work behind the scenes, we are now in a position to go public with our new venture.

Why have we gone in this direction?

As we said, it's been an idea that we have been toying with for some time. With the suppliers we have in place which supply some of the finest fish in the UK, and also the ability to catch our own fish, as well as working with a number of amazing local fishermen, it seemed like the perfect route to go down. All we needed was the right venue. The Dunstable Arms seemed like the perfect place as it is in Sheringham, is a wonderful building and something we can treat as a clean slate and put our own stamp on it. 

The building will no longer be called the Dunstable Arms. We have had many discussions on whether we keep the name or not and it was a tough decision to move away from it. The Dunstable Arms has a great deal of history behind it, and has had some fantastic landlords in the past. Many locals and visitors will have fond memories of when it was open previously, including ourselves as don't forget, we are locals too! However, we decided that in order for us to make it our own, we had to stay true to our vision of what we want the building to be. 

What will the Fishmonger’s Tavern be?

We want to appeal to locals as well as visitors, so we will be tailoring our offering with this in mind. We will be looking to use the entire ground floor as best we can to accommodate diners, which will consist of making use of the garden and old function room in the summer months, and using the inside all year round as a dining area for the most part. We will look to incorporate an area for those who want to pop in for just a drink, however we should make it clear from the outset that it will be a restaurant first and foremost. This may not please everyone, but again, we have to stay true to what we believe is the right thing to do for us. The town already has some brilliant pubs and bars, and there is much more variety for people than there was a few years ago. The hope is that we can add something else to the town, giving even more choice for locals and enhance the offering for our many visitors.

When will we be open?

The truth is, we don’t know at this point. We are aiming for 2023, it could be mid way through the year, could be at the end of the year. A lot depends on when we can get works done and completed, and make sure the offering is where we want it to be. As you can imagine, there is A LOT to do at this point, everything from choosing tables and chairs to recruitment, colour schemes, pretty much everything you can think of. So bear with us, and we will let everyone know when the time is right. 

Our other businesses

CA Seafoods will remain ours and will continue to run as normal. We have grown the shop in the 4 years that we have owned it from just two rooms to taking over the entire building to facilitate everything we do. From our own production facilities to our wholesale operation, not forgetting about resurrecting the Sheringham Smokehouse. We still want this to continue to grow and thrive, so this will be unaffected by our new venture.

We hope that this answers a few questions that you may about this, and we really hope that you are as excited as we are for the challenge we have ahead of us. The support we have had from the community so far has been humbling and overwhelming and we thank you all sincerely for all the feedback and good wishes. 

If you have any specific questions that we may have not answered, please drop us an email at enquiries@fishmongerstavern.co.uk and we will do our best to answer them.

Website - www.fishmongerstavern.co.uk