The Peterborough Eye branch was a Little Chef restaurant located on the A47 near Eye Green, Cambridgeshire.
The Little Chef at Peterborough Eye first opened in 2001/02 by new owners at the time, Compass Catering, who built the Little Chef at Eye Green service station alongside a filling station and a Travelodge hotel. In 2000, Little Chef's and Travelodge's owners, Granada, had merged with Compass Catering in order for them to work together in hospitality. However in 2001, the two groups demerged from each other as Granada wanted to focus on their media side of the business, therefore Compass continued to work with the hospitality side and Little Chef and Travelodge were now under their ownership.
Unlike other groups, Compass saved a lot of money and time when it came to the construction of Little Chefs and Travelodges. Previous owners such as Forte and Granada would build Little Chefs and Travelodges in separate buildings but when it came to Compass, it was a whole new story. At some sites such as Peterborough Eye, Old Stratford and Ashford, Compass cleverly positioned the Little Chef into the bottom corner of the Travelodge hotel, rather than building separate buildings for both restaurant and hotel which would just take up more time and cost more money. This was clever in a way as it saved a lot of time, money and space when it came to construction. The entrances to the Little Chefs at these sites were usually positioned in the lobby of the Travelodge hotels.
The restaurant space of the Little Chef is quite small. However, it is never usually really busy so space isn't really an issue. In terms of the interior, the restaurant sports furniture which is similar to the furniture used in a refurbishment programme known as 'Little Chef Choices' which took place in 2002 at many Little Chef restaurants in the fleet.
In the 2000s, the Little Chef was joined by a McDonald's restaurant. However, despite this, the Little Chef continued trading up until 2017. Peterborough Eye was also the newest surviving branch in the Little Chef fleet for several years.
In September 2017, the Peterborough Eye branch closed following the takeover by Euro Garages. It is set to re-open as either a Starbucks or Greggs.
