Blanc offers £3.50 bus ride to his £220 Michelin dinner
Daily Telegraph Reporter
A MICHELIN-STARRED restaurant is subsidising a country bus service to its gates in the hope of attracting staff who don’t have cars and encouraging diners to use public transport.
Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, in Great Milton, Oxfordshire, started partly funding the number 46 bus from Oxford city centre, with extra income coming from fares and the county council, according to The Guardian.
A single ticket from Oxford to the two-starred restaurant, of which Raymond Blanc is chef-patron, costs £3.50, with discounted rates of £2 for staff who are regular passengers.
The service runs every hour, and takes just under an hour to complete its route. It operates seven days a week, with the first bus leaving Oxford at 7am and the last leaving Le Manoir at 1am. The route also serves the neighbouring villages of Wheatley and Horspath.
The subsidy should cover the bus service for three years or more, and replaces some of a former route that was cut due to budgets. Already passenger numbers have been higher than expected by the Oxford Bus Company, which runs the service.
The bus also helps the restaurant, where the eight-course dinner costs £220 per head, fulfil planning obligations as it expands by building a spa and a training academy, by demonstrating that it can bring more guests without considerably increasing traffic.
Guests who wish to avoid traffic and the wait for the bus can alternatively fly to the restaurant and land on its helipad.
Mr Blanc opened Le Manoir in 1983, after previously running another restaurant called Les Quat’ Saisons in Oxford. He also ran the now-shuttered Maison Blanc pâtisserie chain, and the
Guests who wish to avoid traffic and the wait for the bus can alternatively fly and land on the helipad
Brasserie Blanc chain of high street French restaurants.
Le Manoir is located in a 15th century manor house, surrounded by two acres of kitchen gardens, where much of the restaurant’s food is grown.
Several celebrity chefs have worked in the kitchen over the years, including Marco Pierre White.
It was awarded its Michelin stars upon opening, and has held on to them since. It also has 32 hotel rooms, where guests can stay for £1,000 a night.
The Telegraph’s review awards the hotel a 9/10 score.