A long-running Kent restaurant that once boasted a Michelin star for 20 straight years is to shut at the end of the month after almost half a century. The owners of Read’s in Faversham say they have taken the decision to close with “a hint of trepidation” as “Father Time” has caught up with them. David and Rona Pitchford launched the restaurant in Painters Forstal in 1977 before moving it to Macknade Manor, off Canterbury Road, in 2000.
During its 47-year run it has scooped a number of awards and accolades, but none more prestigious than the Michelin star it secured in 1993 and held for two decades. “We have genuinely been dreading this day for some time,” the couple said. “We have been blessed with the most wonderful and unbelievably loyal staff over the years.
“To see our current brilliant team broken up is incredibly sad. If it were not for the perils of age, we would continue for another 47 years. “It is not only our staff who have been incredibly loyal over the years but our customers too, many of whom have become friends.
” David and Rona’s decision to close comes more than a year after they put the site up for sale for £3 million, though the pair now say they will hold onto the Georgian manor house to live in. “We’re a bit apprehensive about it, but looking forward to it as well,” David told KentOnline. “We’re mid-seventies, so it wasn’t so much us choosing [the decision] as it choosing us.
“One slows down and it’s an industry wh.