A BARNSLEY businessman has invested almost £400,000 transforming the Lucorum pub into a Mediterranean-style restaurant.
Chris Palmer decided to redevelop the Hanson Street building into an eatery and cocktail lounge, which opened as Lazy Pasta and Lazy Lounge on November 9, to try and create a dining quarter and boost business in the town centre.
It will serve lunches, have an early bird menu to catch workers on their way home and be open in the evening.
The building has been given a complete overhaul and is now split into three areas with a welcome bar, a restaurant area in the former pub's courtyard and a cocktail lounge upstairs.
Mr Palmer said he was determined to make it work in Barnsley before trying the idea elsewhere.
"I'm trying to create something for Barnsley that it's not seen before. I'm a Barnsley man and I wanted to make this work in my hometown," he said.
"It's a brand and it could have easily been done in Sheffield or Leeds but I want it to work here.
"I'm willing to invest here first rather than take it elsewhere but if it's successful the plan is to roll it out and we've already identified a premises in Sheffield.
"I think because it's such a beautiful building it's better suited to being a restaurant.
"Usually most restaurants you go to, once they get you in and you've eaten they want you out. Basically what we've created is a relaxing cocktail lounge, where people can go after eating so they're in no rush and it's a relaxed atmosphere."
Lucorum's glory days as a watering hole may now be over, but in its heyday it became home to live music nights with artists such as Sunshine Underground and Jon McClure of Reverend and the Makers taking to the stage - even the Arctic Monkeys were rumoured to have held a secret gig there.
