Bettys is celebrating 40 years at the heart of the Northallerton community with a special thank you to customers whose loyalty week in week out has established the Café Tea Rooms as ‘the Bettys best loved by local residents.’
Nearly 70 per cent of customers visit
Bettys Northallerton – the most northerly of the Yorkshire family firm’s six tea rooms – every week.
Manager Lindsay Judd, who has worked at Bettys for over 23 years, said: “Out of all our tea rooms, Bettys Northallerton is probably the best known for the loyalty of our regulars in the town. We serve more than 220,000 people over 100,000 pots of tea a year in total and many of them have become familiar faces and friends to staff.
“Our team of 72 staff seem to love it here too. More than half of us have been with Bettys for more than five years and seven of us have achieved over 20 years’service.”
Bettys first opened on Northallerton’s High Street a couple of doors down from its present location following the decision to close the Leeds Bettys tea rooms.
The initial premises were cosy but over time, as the popularity of Bettys grew and grew, there was not enough room to cope with the queues of customers. Bettys chairman, Lesley Wild, then spotted the potential of a semi-derelict listed Georgian building close by which dates back to 1740. It had been a bank for 100 years and was originally known as the London Joint City & Midland Bank which then became the HSBC. The bullion safe was still in the cellar and after a year of restoration work, the new tea rooms opened in 2004.
Bettys Northallerton has won the national ‘Oscars’ of the tea world – the Tea Council Award of Excellence three times in its history. To mark the 40th anniversary, Bettys celebration cake specialist Ali McCabe who is based at the Craft Bakery in Harrogate, has re-created the façade of the town’s Tea Rooms in Royal icing as a centrepiece for the Cafe window.
The first customers to visit Bettys Northallerton on Sunday January 8 will be offered a slice of anniversary cake with compliments.
Bettys Northallerton 40th Anniversary
