A BELFAST city centre restaurant has undergone extensive transformation to the tune of £100,000 adding to the thriving hospitality area of the Linen quarter.
The Davis family have had a long and successful tenure in the restaurant business having set up the groundbreaking Skandia group of restaurants in 1969. They have now transformed their premises on Brunswick Street to a laid back brasserie, Acton & Sons.
The 100-cover restaurant will serve throughout the day, seven days per week to shoppers, office workers and theatregoers employing twenty full and part-time staff.
Now with a new dark wood interior, relaxing ambience and simple but high quality food at very reasonable prices, Acton & Sons is taking the family’s philosophy to the next level.
Tom Davis, 81, founded Skandia and was the first to introduce pavlova to Northern Ireland. Under the guidance of their father, the Davis brothers Jonathan and Andrew who separately run their own restaurant businesses Neill’s Hill and Papa Joe’s respectively, will oversee the running of Acton & Sons alongside executive chef Cath Gradwell and head chef Brian Caldwell.
Jonathan said, “Our family have long held a restaurant premises in this area and we’re placing our family’s heritage at the heart of this new venture. On the walls you’ll find some of the original menus dating back to the late 1960s and from the kitchen you can expect firm favourites alongside fresh fish and signature dishes of roast fillet of hake, tomato, chorizo and white bean stew and Guinness and honey glazed pork fillet, champ cake, celery and apple salad.
“The name Acton & Sons derives from the Acton Hotel and Catering School in London where my father attended and subsequently met my mother and the rest, as they say, is history. The restaurant will continue to use only the best local suppliers such as Walter Ewing’s fish and seafood, a supplier we have used since the 1960s.”
Check out Acton & Sons at 17 Brunswick Street, Belfast or log onto www.actonandsons.com