A popular restaurant is celebrating its one-year milestone in business and thanked customers for their continued support.

Owners of the popular restaurant 'Eleven' on Main Street, Ponteland, chefs Ryan Carr and Danny Land along with the front of house manager Stephen Pitfield, are reflecting on the success of their much-loved restaurant.

The friends opened their restaurant after the pandemic left them without a job in April 2020. They were due to start in a new restaurant but the opening for it did not go ahead.

Since opening, Eleven has already been mentioned in the Michelin guide when it was only trading after 15 weeks.

Dany said: "We are incredibly proud to reach the one-year milestone. It may seem small but the first year of any restaurant is notoriously difficult and in our first year the world literally threw everything at us.

"We are really looking forward to continuing to build on what we have started.

"We always knew we wanted a small, intimate space and for that to be in a small neighborhood and Ponteland has been a brilliant location actually. It’s such a tight-knit community and it’s fantastic to be a part of that seeing a lot of the same faces week in week out."

The restaurant opening was on May 19 but the chefs decided to downplay their anniversary.

"It was business as usual but we shared a glass of champagne with our guests who were in the restaurant on our birthday," the chef said.

"There’s so much more we want to achieve and we know we’re still in difficult times so our heads will remain down and focused on making the restaurant even better.

"We have so many who eat with us on a regular basis and without their, and everyone else’s unwavering support from the very beginning, we wouldn’t have reached our first birthday."

"We always take the dessert out to every table each night and have a small interaction with them to see how they’ve enjoyed their night."