End of an era as 'roast dinner' restaurant Sundays closes

Kayleigh Broll and David Beever - who both began working at Sundays in 2004

After serving half a million roast dinners over the last 18 years, Peterborough’s Sundays Restaurant is calling it a day.

Sundays, launched in Cumbergate in 2004 but most recently operating in the Cathedral precincts, will not re-open after service on January 8, company owner David Beever announced.

The decision has been made to close the restaurant and focus on areas of the business that are more secure in these uncertain times. The online sales (bbqnights.co.uk) business, born out of covid lockdowns, and outside catering have proved far more successful.

In the meantime, however, lovers of the famed roast dinners and roasts-in-a-roll will be pleased to know they will be serving full Christmas dinners every Thursday to Sunday up to December 23, at Becketts Chapel in the Cathedral Precincts.

After that it will be Thursday and Friday ( December 29 and 30) and then a final Sunday serving on January 8.

A BBQ Nights event is planned for Friday 16th December.

Sending a “massive thank you” to loyal customers over almost two decades, David said: “We've had a very good run in the city and have loved serving so many of you. The years have gone quickly but now is time for a change.

“After so long trading in the city we feel we are really in tune with how the city centre economy is doing and the fact is we are just too uncertain about the restaurant trade (particularly daytime) as we look into 2023.

"The four-day week business model we introduced has worked well this side of Christmas, but footfall in the city centre is still 35% below 2019 levels and with no sign of major employers in the city centre moving back to full time office working, nor any plans for any destination retailers to move into the centre, it is clear this won't improve for some time. This coupled with food and energy inflation we feel it would be foolhardy to be optimistic about the bricks and mortar aspect of the business next year.”

He added: “We do have tentative plans to stay in touch with our customers with regular pop-up events in the city later in 2023. I'm sure the current travails of the local and national economy will improve in time and we will look at re-entry into the market”