TWO of Southend’s best-known restaurants are moving out of the town centre.

The owners of Henry Burgers and Legend-Deli are both looking to move out of Market Place, off Alexandra Street, citing the street’s out-of-the-way location as a reason.

Both restaurants are highly rated on online tourism guide TripAdvisor, with Henry Burgers boasting four stars out of five.

Legend-Deli has five out of five and was also voted fifth best restaurant in Southend, sixth best place to eat and was awarded a Certificate of Excellence.

Henry Burgess, who runs Henry Burgers said he was selling the lease on his town centre premises a year before it expires to focus on his Leigh branch.

He added: “I own the Leigh restaurant with one business partner and the Southend restaurant with another, who’s keen to get some closure because it’s the same company as when we opened Sunrooms eight years ago.

“However, he hasn’t been involved for about three years.

“It will beawonderful opportunity for someone, but the one problem we have is it is a little tucked away.

“We spoke about doing something with the alleyway between Market Place and the High Street, but it’s private land, so we couldn’t really do anything.

“I’m sure the council knows it’s in its interests to do something about that corner of town, though.

“It could be a bit like Southend’s Carnaby Street.”

Legend-Deli, which opened 30 months ago and seats 30 people, was chosen by Jamie Oliver as caterer for his staff during his stint of filming on the pier last summer.

Owner Jay Finlay is advertising his Christmas menu as the “Last Legend-Deli Christmas Menu”.

He said the Market Place restaurant had simply outgrown its cramped and largely-hidden premises. He added: “We are very limited there. It’s an old building and we can’t really seat enough people to make a good business.

“We do well at night, but it’s quite hard down there during the day.

“We’ve got a reputation, but it’s all through social media – there’s no walk-in trade because and people just miss it.

“What we’d like to do is open a fine-dining gastropub in much bigger premises somewhere in south Essex, with imported wines and microbrewed beers.

“We’re looking at a number of premises at the moment, and have our eyes on one in particular, but we will need to find some funding, either through crowdsourcing or investment from some sort of group.”

'AREA STILL HAS BRIGHT FUTURE'

MARKET Place still has a bright future with new eateries moving into the area, one of Southend business leaders beleives.

Dawn Jeakings, manager of the Southend Business Improvement District scheme, said it was unfortunate Henry Burgers and Legend-Deli had decided to move out of Market Place at the same time, but felt the area’s distinct character would see it through.

She said: “The B u s i n e s s Improvement District promotes the area on our website and it’s an area I like a lot myself.

“It’s a very different part of town and bit of a cool and trendy area, as is Alexandra Street.

That’s something businesses will grab hold of and move it forward.

“Coast Cafe has recently opened behind there, in Royal Mews, as has Pulp smoothie bar on the corner of Alexandra Street and Market Place, which I love, I go in there a lot.

“We’ve also got the Royal Hotel restaurant opening soon and that will be brilliant.”

Council leader Ron Woodley has promises the area will be “transformed” in the near future as part of the council’s plan for the town centre.

He said: “Obviously I hope that Legend-Deli stays within Southend and goes on to bigger and better things and that Henry Burgers continues to do well in Leigh.

“In time, we will be redeveloping the whole face of the town centre, and we might have four economic quadrants, with a shopping area, restaurant area, a retail area, a daytime economy and night-time economy. The restaurants will gain from that.

“In five or ten years, that area will be transformed.”