Celebrity TV chef Simon Rimmer opens new Wirral pub

The Viking and Bakehouse on Black Horse Hill had its pre-launch night on Thursday and opens its doors to the public today.

It occupies what was most recently known as The Hilltop and will employ 60 people, who have been trained in partnership with Wirral Metropolitan College.

Wallasey-born Simon, star of Channel 4's Sunday Brunch is part of a team behind the £1.1m venture.

During its launch last night, Simon told the Globe: "The reaction to the place has been positive so far.

"I've got a great feeling about the place and hope the public likes it."

Simon Rimmer in The Viking Pub's garden during its launch on Thursday night. Picture: Geoff Davies

It features a free photo booth, children's cinema room, boules court and table tennis.

And the name?

In a recent Globe interview, Simon said: "We decided on The Viking because of Wirral’s heritage with The Vikings, we wanted to bring that influence to our local pub.

"We opened our first pub in Woolton two years ago and the aim of the business and that we, basically would look at M56, M53, M62 corridor, so that everywhere would be accessible in about an hour.

"We did Woolton and that was a pub everyone said 'used to be great', similarly to this, so we set out to change it and it is now a pub that is great and doing everything that a community pub should do.

"It feels like there's lots of similarities with this pub in West Kirby as there were with Woolton, so hopefully we’ve got the right vibe on it."

After graduating with a degree in fashion textile design, Simon was a freelance designer and part-time tutor on design courses for five years before embarking on the career in which he would become a household name.

He came to fame after founding Greens, a vegetarian restaurant in West Didsbury, Manchester in 1990.

Simon Rimmer inside The Viking Pub's launch on Thursday night. Picture: Geoff Davies

On the career change, Simon said in a recent interview: "I'd always worked in bars and restaurants as a student, always liked the industry, had already decided it was time to have a change of tack and just went for it, taught myself to cook and opened the restaurant.

"My two main business partners in this are Roy Ellis and Neil MacLeod, who started the Revolution chain.

"I've known them for 26 years and we'd always talked about doing something together.

"From the day that we started working together, it just felt that this was we wanted to do.

"We're employing 50 people here to start with and we’ll probably end up with more.

"It felt great opening a restaurant in Woolton, and being at that end of the M62, but opening a restaurant in Wirral is exactly like coming home.

"It's brilliant."

The restaurant's operations director, Charlotte Kemp said: "In Woolton we took our first steps towards our vision which is make our pubs the centre of community life.

"We aim to become a valuable addition to the local communities in which we operate by giving local people a real reason to get out and be entertained, socialise or celebrate with friends and family."