A six month investment programme at the internationally acclaimed Oyster Shack seafood restaurant near Bigbury in the South Hams, has now been finalised with owner Chris Yandell predicting a bumper year for the hospitality and leisure trade in the region.
 
The award-winning seafood restaurant has undergone a makeover to enhance its unique dining experience which offers a daily changing menu of fresh fish brought from Plymouth and Brixham markets with oysters farmed on its doorstep in the River Avon, just a couple of hundred yards away.
 
29 year-old owner Chris Yandell said: “In addition to refreshing the outdoor restaurant accommodation, I have extended the kitchen and added new product offerings including an oyster bar, Shack picnics and a BBQ. 
 
“We have invested £60,000 this year to ensure our guests have the best experience every time they visit The Oyster Shack. It is our goal to ensure the ‘shack charm’ and uniqueness continues, and we feel our latest additions will enhance this.”
 
“Our formula is simplicity – simple fresh fish and seafood of the highest quality, served in a simple but memorable environment.
 
“I believe the tourist trade in the South West is well placed to take long term advantage of the rising costs of going abroad but only if businesses are prepared to invest in upgrading facilities and providing new products. It’s no good getting visitors here once and then not attracting them again.”
 
Chris Yandell recently disposed of his second Oyster Shack and family restaurant, Jack Sprat’s in Salcombe to concentrate on the original business which was established 20 years ago and which he acquired in 2004.
 
Giles Hutchings, a corporate service partner at chartered accountants Francis Clark, who advises Chris Yandell said: “The Oyster Shack has built a niche reputation over many years. It’s a hidden gem accessed by a tidal road and regarded as quirky but it is these very characteristics, along with providing food of the highest quality, which has made its reputation.
 
“Businesses of this sort, which thrive on serving locally sourced produce, are vital to our tourist economy and people such as Chris who has been prepared to invest in his business, becomes more than just the owner, he becomes the custodian of a real regional treasure.”