Welcome to our family owned and operated, proudly independent, restaurant and venue. We are Lois & David, and this the story of how we created our award winning restaurant and venue.

The journey from a neglected cafe, to be becoming award winning, took a leap of faith, as Lois explains:

After working for many years in the hospitality industry, I took a break, embarking on a career change. However in 2016, following the birth of our youngest child, I decided it was time to return to my preferred industry to create a special business for our family.

After working as a large chain hotel manager, I wanted to create our own independent restaurant and venue. It took two years of searching for the right place, the right business and the right venue, when we eventually found a neglected, forgotten about cafe in the centre of Whitby. Being from the hospitality industry, I could see straight away the potential it had. However David, working in education both as a teacher, Academy Director and in the last 14 years, an education consultant, had never considered hospitality as something he’d be involved in. But having spent many happy childhood holidays in Whitby, he saw the appeal and agreed. And in 2018, we became the new owners.

We named the business after our daughter, and began a journey of transformation. Through hard work, persistence and an unwavering determination we have transformed the business into an award winning, destination restaurant and venue.

We have featured in numerous publications and media stories, including The Yorkshire Post, the Sun, BBC radio, York Press and many more,  about our journey, our awards, our business growth and how we have created something so very special here in Whitby with our now famous Fish and Chips Afternoon Tea. For all of our media coverage and new stories, please visit our News page.

Many of you will meet me, happily hosting wedding and events, or greeting customers in the restaurant. You may also see me at various business events, where I’m often asked to share our story. If you see me, please do say hello! David, however, is much more involved in the back office operational running of the business.

And together with our amazing team, we are very proud of all that we have achieved so far. Our team is at the heart of our business, and we trust them so implicitly we held our own wedding reception here! We could not have been prouder of the amazing day they gave us.  We are looking forward to achieving even more in the coming years, facing the challenges together, as family business.

But our story is the culmination of the business’s own amazing story, which started in 1928. To get the full story please visit Our History page, when you can learn all about Whitby’s oldest fish and chips serving restaurant.

Thank you for reading. We look forward to welcoming you to Hetty & Betty soon!