Merchant House, the restaurant that put Ludlow on the culinary map, shut its doors for the final time last Saturday night.

After a decade of operation, the two-Michelin-starred Shropshire restaurant finally closed after chef/patron Shaun Hill failed to find a buyer to take over the 20-seat premises.

Hill: mixed feelings

Hill said: "I’ve got mixed feelings about closing but I felt we’d done as much as we could. I didn’t want to coast along and knew in my heart when to stop.

"I had started to tread water and never wanted to have people say we had gone off the boil."

The chef admitted he was unsure about his future plans but was currently writing recipes for people, considering consultancy work and writing a book “to pay the bills”.

He did not rule out opening another restaurant in the future.
 
by Emily Manson

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