Richard and Lindsey Johns to open East Yorkshire pub

Richard and Lindsey Johns, the former owners of the award-winning Artisan restaurant, are set to open a new venture in a Yorkshire country pub.

The husband-and-wife team are close to finalising a free-of-tie lease on the Falcon Inn in the East Yorkshire village of Withernwick, around 10 miles east of Beverley. The site is expected to cater for between 38 and 45 covers.

It is just over a year since self-taught chef Richard and Lindsey decided to close the 16-cover Artisan in Hessle in East Yorkshire, which opened in December 2004. In that time it won several awards including being voted Best Restaurant 2010 in the Yorkshire Tourism awards, and Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year for the North East of England in 2011.

When they announced the closure, Richard said he hoped to return with a venture that appealed to a wider audience and that still appears to be the plan with the Falcon Inn, which he indicated would not be a fine dining establishment but would instead reflect the new site's pub environment.

"Because of our background with Artisan, a lot of people will probably expect us to do a high end restaurant masquerading as a pub, which is the last thing we want to do," he said.

"We want to keep the traditions of a pub but to modernise it and give that sort of clean, comfortable food that people can identify with but with a modern sort of slant. You won't find foie gras and all that sort of stuff on the menu."

The Falcon Inn is due to open in early September.