The Trewern branch was a former Little Chef restaurant located on the A458 near Trewern, Powys.
Address and Onsite Information[]
ADDRESS: A458, Trewern, Welshpool, Powys, SY21 8SZ
ONSITE FACILITIES: Fabrizio's
History[]
Opening its doors sometime between 1980 and 1982, the Little Chef at Trewern was the first and only Little Chef restaurant to be built on the A458. Although it was the only restaurant to open on this major 86 mile long road connecting Halesowen in England to Malwydd in Wales, it was a well chosen site by then owners, Forte, as not only did it have the ability to serve travellers and long distance traffic on the A458 but the restaurant also acted as a bit of a community hub for the village of Trewern due to its rural location and sold lots of things you'd associate with a village store like milk, eggs and newspapers. A perfect example of catering for the local and long distance customer at the same time!
A recurring trend with the rural Little Chef sites in particular was how well maintained they used to be. Trewern was a site which was well looked after over the years, despite not receiving any major refurbishments in its lifetime, and even the long-standing manageress, who was said to have been a huge fan of flowers, decided to decorate the restaurant with hanging baskets and flowers, making the restaurant look immaculate and attractive. A good example of how to do things well!
Despite being in a rural location and given how many closures there were over the years, Trewern still managed to escape from the long list of closures between 2001 and 2007, proving that the dual purpose community and long distance traveller serving model worked a treat! Sadly though, trouble struck in 2012 when then owners, RCapital, announced the closure of 67 Little Chefs which were deemed to be unprofitable and Trewern was one of the restaurants to be listed. It closed by February 2012 and since then, the restaurant has lain empty and the site was earmarked for housing but got rejected. The restaurant also remains unlocked, allowing urban explorers to enter the premises and capture photos of the abandoned restaurant. A lot of these photos can be found online.
In 2019, a cafe known as Moo's Coffee Bar took over the former restaurant, sporting a drive thru as well as eat in dining. In 2022 the cafe closed, and an independent Italian restaurant known as Fabrizio's has now taken over the building.
