THE BOX TREE

The Box Tree, Ilkley

Fifty years ago, due to the popularity of its cream teas, cakes and other detectible delights, Malcolm Reid and his partner Colin Long made the decision to turn Ilkley's foremost antique shop and tearoom into a fine dining restaurant. Taking inspiration from the buxus shrubs that had been grown in the low walled gardens since the that grew in the low walled garden of the early, they called it The Box Tree.

Over the next few years, The Box Tree established a reputation as one of the best restaurants in the North and in 1974 was amongst the first in the UK to be awarded a Michelin star. Three years later, along with Connaught, The Waterside and Le Gavroche they were awarded two stars – by this time, The Box Tree was widely considered to be the best restaurant in Great Britain & Ireland.

As time passed, both The Waterside and Le Gavroche went on to win three stars. In 1986, Reid and Long sold The Box Tree and its successes over subsequent years went in peaks and troughs; undulating as the surrounding Ilkley Moors.

A famed high in the The Box Tree’s history is the part it played in setting a young Marco Pierre White on his own road to Michelin stardom - lows include spells without stars.

The restaurant’s recent success has come since Simon Gueller and his wife Rena took ownership (in 2004) gaining and retaining the star the following year. One of the most recent (2010) and significant developments in The Box Tree’s history has seen Marco return to ‘his spiritual home’ in partnership with the Guellers with a view to cementing further the reputation and heritage that makes The Box Tree uniquely special.