Blunos returns to open Blinis in Bath

Chef Martin Blunos is opening a restaurant in Bath next week - two months after he shut his two-Michelin-starred Lettonie restaurant in the city.

Blinis, in Argyle Street, opens on Saturday 17 November.

Blunos will run the business, which will have a delicatessen and 12- to 14-seat café at street level and a 35- to 40-seat fine-dining restaurant in the basement.

The owners, Sebastian and Phillipa Hughes, own four West Country hotels. They are: the 18-bedroom Dukes hotel in Bath; the 18-bedroom Holne Chase on Dartmoor; the 10-bedroom Little Admiral in Dartmouth, Devon; and the 12-bedroom St Olaves in Exeter, Devon.

In April they appointed Blunos to act as consultant chef of the Fitzroy's restaurant at their newly refurbished Dukes hotel.

The food at Blinis will be modern British, but there will be a number of Eastern European dishes to reflect Blunos's Latvian background.

Lunch will cost £15 or £20, for two or three courses, while a three-course dinner from the table d'hôte menu will cost £39.50. There will also be a £55 nine-course tasting menu.

Blunos opened Lettonie in Bath in 1997 after trading for nine years under the same name in Bristol. He achieved his Michelin stars at Lettonie in Bristol and regained them after moving to Bath. He closed the restaurant in September (Caterer, 27 September, page 12).

by Louise Bozec and Kevin Lee