Bookings have almost doubled at a Staffordshire restaurant which prides itself on using local ingredients after being listed alongside the best in the world.
Little Seeds, in Stone, found out just before Christmas that it was featured in the latest renowned Michelin Guide.
Its listing mentions the restaurant’s roast Staffordshire beef Sunday lunch and praises how “great quality regional ingredients are used to create eye-catching British dishes with the occasional playful touch.”
Since news of being featured in the guide has spread, owners Jake Lowndes and Sophie Hardman have been inundated with enquiries and they are now fully booked beyond the rest of this month.
Sophie said: “The reaction has been amazing. It’s fantastic to see the amount of appreciation for what we are offering at the restaurant.
“Bookings have doubled and this has come at a particularly good time for us. The cost-of-living crisis has brought uncertainty to the hospitality trade but we’re in our own little bubble at the moment.
“January is usually the quietest month of the year but we’re fully booked for the next three weeks and have found people are making reservations a lot further in advance than they did.”
The couple opened the Radford Street business in June 2016 and serve modern British food. The restaurant has 30 covers, with an extra 14 in a private dining room.
A new addition for this year is monthly wine dinners, with more special events in the pipelines.
Menus are frequently redeveloped and an emphasis is put on seasonal, quality, regionally-sourced ingredients.
Sophie added: “We feel we have a responsibility to try to support the local businesses around us, but we have also worked hard to find ones with a similar ethos to us.
“Our suppliers are passionate about what they do and that is reflected in the quality of what they – and we – produce.”
The restaurant’s listing in the Michelin Guide can be found here.
Three Lichfield restaurants also feature in the guide – Larder, The Boat Inn and Upstairs by Tom Shepherd – as does Lunar at World of Wedgwood in Barlaston, near Stoke-on-Trent.
