The chef, of Channel 4 Sunday Brunch fame, will open the Viking Pub & Bakehouse in West Kirby – the second venture for his pub company, Flying Pig & Lobster.
Rimmer’s business partner and co-founder of Revolution Bars Roy Ellis previously told the PMA’s sister title MCA the site would have a ‘Scandinavian’ feel but would not be a themed pub.
Growth potential
The Flying Pig & Lobster concept was in the mould of Brunning & Price and could have the same growth potential as them, he suggested.
“Could you have a few hundred of these? Of course you could. The opportunity is massive. But for now our idea is to add two or three a year and enjoy it and build fantastic pubs that we love,” he said.
The Viking was previously know, as the Hilltop and before that the Collingwood, which was run by high-profile chef Aiden Byrne of Manchester fine-dining restaurant Manchester House.
Wirral council recently approved plans to build a kitchen extension at the site and refurbish the beer garden among other improvements.
Controversy
Earlier this year, Rimmer presented Tricks of the Restaurant Trade on Channel 4, which sparked moderate controversy in the hospitality industry around claims it made about the safety of serving medium and medium rare burgers.
In response to the show, the British Hospitality Association (BHA) said that while rare burgers cooked in uncontrolled conditions could be unsafe, concerns raised by Tricks of the Restaurant Trade focused only on the burgers’ colour, rather than what food businesses were doing to ensure food safety.
BHA food safety expert Dr Lisa Ackerley told the Publican’s Morning Advertiser: “There are a number of controls that businesses can use and are using to ensure that their burgers are safe.
“It would be unwise, therefore, to assume that all rare burgers are unsafe because this is not the case.”