Chef Adam Handling is moving his highly rated restaurant Ugly Butterfly from St Ives to Newquay in a 10-day, 30-mile shuffle along the north Cornwall coast at the end of this month.
The move was forced on Adam by the loss of his lease at the luxury Carbis Bay resort in St Ives, but he believes the new venue will be a better fit. He said he had effectively been kicked out of Carbis Bay by the landlords exercising their breakout clause after four years; luckily, Veryan and Richard Palmer of The Headland hotel (pictured) overlooking Newquay’s Fistral Beach are fans of his cooking, and came to the rescue. Ugly Butterfly closes at Carbis Bay on Saturday 28 June and reopens at The Headland on Wednesday 9 July.
Adam said: “When you have to close a restaurant it’s heart-wrenching because building a restaurant is like giving birth to a child and watching that child grow up. For me my first concern was what we do with the staff and how we had let them down with that closure.
“We went into that fight or flight mode. We have a lot of friends in Cornwall so we called a few of them to see if they’d be willing to have us move in. It would have been easier to close the brand in Cornwall altogether but I love Cornwall. I have a house here and it’s my favourite place in the UK – and I’m Scottish. I didn’t want to leave. I love it here.”
Adam knew the Palmers as regulars at his pub the Tartan Fox, a short drive inland from Newquay. (His flagship, Frog by Adam Handling, is in Coventry Garden.)
“They’re in the hospitality business. They care about Cornwall and the people of Cornwall. Their corporate responsibility is aligned with ours. To be supported by them it phenomenal. We love what they do and they love what we do so we thought we’d contact them.“
The new venue will seat 50 inside, 20 on the terrace and 30 in the bar, while the menu will be tweaked to offer a choice of four starters and four main courses instead of a tasting menu. Adam says: “It is still a luxury hotel but we will make our menu more accessible for everyone.”
He added that The Headland offers something Carbis Bay never could – glorious sunset views. “The terrace outside will be super-casual with no reservations. It’ll be a place to come and chill where you’ll be able to enjoy a glass of wine or a pint of beer and some food and enjoy the sunset.”
Almost the entire team from Carbis Bay will be making the move to The Headland, and Adam said he would help with any extra transport costs.
“As one door closes, another one opens – and this Ugly Butterfly 2.0 is a more fitting home for our most sustainable concept. We are taking this situation in an extremely positive light, building on what Ugly Butterfly has achieved and focusing on what we need to do to be even better. There is no doubt that we will be gunning for a Michelin star in this restaurant. And what a place to do it – the iconic Cornish hotel, The Headland. I will be predominantly based in Cornwall for this year, to relaunch this restaurant, and it will, no doubt, give my Frog restaurant a run for its money.“
