New Restaurant

A new year, and a new restaurant has opened in Hay without me noticing!
Just before Christmas I was walking through town when I saw a letter on the pavement - probably a Christmas card, I thought, so I was going to pop it into the Post Office letterbox on my way past. Then I noticed that the address was Pemberton Cottage, which was closer than the Post Office, so I popped it round.
On the way, I happened to look through the back window of St John's. "They've got a shiny new kitchen," I thought. So on the way back, I had a nosy through the front windows and saw all the tables and chairs set out, and the new sign that said "St. Johnn's Place Open For Food".
I understand that the chef used to work at Tomatitos, just across the road, so the food will be good!

St John's is the chapel belonging with St Mary's church, and that side of the building is untouched. The room where the kitchen now is used to be a Christian bookshop run by church volunteers, and the restaurant was a hall that was hired out for meetings. The room above was also hired out for meetings - I used to go to Fellowship on a Monday evening in the days of the previous vicar to Father Richard, but has now been hired out as book storage. When Chris Arden retired from running his Natural History bookshop, his son-in-law took the business over, but moved it all on-line, so he isn't open as a shop.
Change is nothing new here - in its time, the building has been a bank and a butcher's shop among other things.