A popular Weston restaurant which suddenly closed two months ago has reopened with its former head chef in charge.

La Tapa Continental, in Oxford Street, shut in August due to ‘unforeseen circumstances’, but its former cook, Chris Fry, has taken over and hopes to progress the restaurant ‘to a new level’.

Mr Fry is well-known to Weston’s pub-goers for his work as the head chef at the Captain’s Cabin for a number of years, and more recently running The Major of Glengarry.

But Mr Fry is excited to take on La Tapa which built an impressive reputation among diners before it closed.

He said: “I was the chef when La Tapa first opened.

“I worked in the kitchen here for around seven weeks, before me and my partner rented the kitchen at the Captain’s Cabin and we got the trade back up there.

“Then the Major came up and we took that and ran it for eight months.

“We brought it up it from the depths of despair because it was shut down by Environmental Health and had a very bad name – and we turned it around.

“But then this came up and I said to my partner ‘let’s give up the pub because it’s expensive to run and come down here’, because it’s much more suited to us.”

Mr Fry learned his trade at ‘one of the most exclusive restaurants’ in Paris at the age of 16, and is promising ‘top-end’ food will be served at La Tapa.

He added: “I’ve got a wealth of experience behind me. I’ve been a chef for 30-odd years.

“I’m old-school, we do things how they should be done. I don’t do frozen, it’s all home-cooked food.

“I want to get this place known for seafood and steaks, because I think there’s a market for it in this town.

“It’s going to be top-end food but at affordable prices.

“I think in the new year we’re going to rebrand and decorate inside, putting our own mark on it, but for the time being, because it was well-known and very busy, we’re going to keep the name.”

But will the chef miss running The Major of Glengarry?

“No, it’s business,” he said.

“My partner says she misses it because of the atmosphere, but this was too good an opportunity to turn down.

“The kitchen is amazing here and it’s a no-brainer.”