Baltic's rooftop restaurant re-opens doors

Feb 4 2009 by Jane Hall, The Journal

BALTIC’S rooftop restaurant is set to re-open after award-winning chef Richard Sim clinched a deal to run it.

Nine months after the art gallery’s McCoys restaurant closed, a new team is taking over the prestigious venue.

Gourmet catering company Fresh Element has won the franchise to run the eaterie, which boasts breathtaking views of the Tyne’s bridges and the Newcastle cityscape.

Meanwhile, the new restaurant in Newcastle operated by the McCoys, which previously ran the Baltic rooftop restaurant, has closed for business.

Just a few months since opening on Mosley Street in Newcastle city centre under the direction of head chef Marcus Bennett, the McCoys brasserie ceased trading on Sunday.

The restaurant was intended to offer cheaper meals than at the Baltic but has not found sufficient customers to succeed.

The Baltic restaurant called Six – so named because the restaurant is on the contemporary gallery’s sixth floor – will specialise in offering diners competitively priced traditional British food with a twist using the finest local ingredients.

Due to officially open its doors to the public on February 23, preview meals will be served on selected days from Friday.

Fresh Element co-founder and award-winning chef Richard Sim is to head up the kitchen.

It will be the first time in nearly two years that the local food champion who has cooked for the likes of singer Bryan Ferry, millionaire footballers, and the cream of Britain’s aristocracy, will have worked in such a professional environment.

But the 40-year-old who has been indulging his passion for local produce in an ambassadorial role with the Made in Northumberland tourism-backed project as well as through Fresh Element’s catering arm, is looking forward to the challenge.

“An opportunity like this only comes along once and you have to grab it with both hands,” he said. “When it comes to restaurants with similar views, I can only think of the Oxo Tower in London and Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh that come close to Six.”

Fish from North Shields, Ingram Valley lamb, slow-cooked Northumbrian duck leg, Blagdon pork, Boulmer crab cakes and comfort puddings like jam roly poly and gingerbread parfait, will all be on the menu. With consumers tightening their financial belts, Six will be offering a two course lunch for £14 and three courses at £16. The evening equivalent will be £18 and £20.

Mr Sim, who was born and bred in Alnwick, Northumberland, where he still lives with wife Kim and son Rowan, nine, says of the value menu: “We can do this without compromising on quality by being clever and buying in the best local ingredients for the time of year.”

With scores of restaurants predicted to close over the coming months due to the economic downturn, Mr Sim is confident Six won’t suffer the same fate.

:: Six at Baltic, Gateshead Quays, will open for preview dinners from February 6. Call: (0191) 440-4948 or email: eat@sixbaltic.com