Restaurant Group Gets Ready to Open its Gardens

A sustainable restaurant group is claiming the most al fresco dining spots in Hertfordshire this summer, with around 150 outside dining spots in Harpenden, St Albans, Hitchin and Berkhamsted.

The multi-award winning Lussmanns Sustainable Kitchen group has recently opened its 5th restaurant in a Grade II listed building in the pretty canal-side historic market town of Berkhamsted, late last year. When the Berkhamsted garden opens in the first week of June, that restaurant alone will have 70 outside covers, more than any other restaurant in the area.

This is in addition to the considerable courtyard garden space Lussmanns offers in Harpenden – which is already open – and its pavement dining spots in Hitchin, as well as a new outdoor dining area in the Cathedral quarter in St Albans, which will be opening in mid-June. The St Albans restaurant’s outside tables will arguably afford diners the best views of any Hertfordshire town restaurant, as it is located in the centre of the city, on Waxhouse Gate, right next to the stunning 11th-century Cathedral and its walled Vintry Garden – in which the ancient monks from the medieval Abbey (now the Cathedral) would tend to their vineyard.

Andrei Lussmann, Founder and MD of Lussmanns, says: ‘There is nothing that says summer is here quite like al fresco dining. Everyone loves to sit in a pleasant outdoor spot with some great food and a cold drink. Every Lussmanns restaurant is in a beautiful building in a picturesque location and we have tried to make the very most of the outside space we have to create little oases in which it is a pleasure to sit and eat and drink and socialise.

‘We are particularly excited to open the Berkhamsted walled garden this June, as it is the largest al fresco dining area in the vicinity with 70 covers, and will have large sturdy umbrellas providing complete shelter should it rain, and the St Albans restaurant’s terrace, which will have a retractable awning, and provides stunning views of the prettiest part of the city.

‘Each restaurant’s outside space has a very different look and personality, but all will have the Lussmanns style and service.’