Deane follows a star to belfast city centre
Deanes on the Square, the Northern Ireland restaurant which won its first Michelin star this year, is relocating to Belfast city centre.
Called Deanes Belfast, the new venture is a collaboration between chef-proprietor Michael Deane and Brian and Lynda Smith, owners of Charly's, a casual American-style restaurant in Coleraine, County Londonderry.
The 5,000sq ft site on Howard Street will include a brasserie-style operation, which opens at the end of April, and a formal dining room, set to open later in May.
Mr Deane is hoping Deanes Belfast will prove more lucrative than his former restaurant which opened in a mock-baronial railway terminal in Helen's Bay, County Down, four years ago. "There were lots of problems being in an old building, so far from the city. We only really had a dinner trade," he said.
He hopes customers who used to travel once a month from Belfast by taxi to Deanes on the Square, paying up to £15 each way, will now be able to afford to eat out at the restaurant more often.
The street-level bar brasserie will serve a modern British and Pacific Rim-inspired all-day menu for between £5 and £10 a head. With seating for up to 100, Downstairs at Deanes will have a loud colour scheme, a reaction to the minimalism in vogue in many new restaurants.
Customers will be able to watch the chefs cooking on TV screens linked to the kitchen while they drink wine by the glass from a wine-dispensing machine imported from California.
Upstairs, in the formal 42-seat restaurant, Mr Deane is hoping to retain his Michelin star with a menu that blends French, Irish, British and Pacific Rim influences. Average spend per head is expected to be £35 to £40.
"It would be tragic if I lost the star, but it will be difficult. A lot has happened this year," said Mr Deane.
The restaurant refurbishment is likely to cost about £500,000.