Darlington's Traditional
Restaurant & Café Bar

Fully Licensed - Open 9.30am to 5.00pm Monday to Saturday
36-44 Tubwell Row Darlington - Tel: 01325 464475

The history of Crombies Restaurant

Whatever would have Jamie and Katherine Crombie have thought of it? Pan fried chicken supreme in a white wine and mushroom sauce - a far cry from steak and kidney pie and potato scallops.

But Crombies Restaurant has never foresaken the old favourites and there are customers of many decades' standing to prove it.

Picture: Crombies old Restaurant

"The pie was 8d (8 old pence) and roast beef was 1s 3d (1 shilling and 3 old pence),"

recalled their daughter, Christina McCallum, who was just 15 when she donned the green dress and white apron of a waitress the day Crombies opened for business.

Today, the steamed puddings, jam rolls and old-fashioned fruit tarts can still be sampled alongside a more extensive menu.

"To begin with we only had a restaurant a quarter of the size it is now, upstairs from Tate's cake shop. Tea was 2d and coffee 4d. We opened until about 11pm, my mother did most of the cooking but we did have an assistant."

said Mrs. McCallum, whose daughter and son-in-law, Maureen and Frederick Stehr are the third generation of the family to carry on cooking.

When the Stehrs joined the business in the '70s a new kitchen and larger dining room were created upstairs.

"We wanted to keep the service as it had been in the past and to maintain our own personally-set high standards,"

said Mr. Stehr.

"I can't think of many family businesses in this line which have lasted so long in Darlington town centre."

You can contact us on 01325 464475.