I have been thinking a lot recently about the food scene in Wrexham. Having both a Hotel and Pub in Wrexham I have really become connected to the city.
There are good restaurants here. There are talented chefs here. There are independent businesses doing interesting things and there is absolutely an appetite for better food and better experiences.
But if we are being realistic, Wrexham still does not have much of a fine-dining scene.
If you want a tasting menu, a guest-chef experience or a more elevated evening built around food, chances are you are heading to Liverpool, Manchester, Chester or further afield.
And I keep coming back to the same question: why should Wrexham have to?
Wrexham has changed massively over the last few years. More people are visiting, there is more investment and there is a much bigger spotlight on the city. Hospitality should grow with that, and I think food has a huge part to play.
I want to see more reasons for people to stay in Wrexham for a special meal rather than automatically looking elsewhere.
So I Decided to Bring Some of It Here
That is really where the idea for the Savvy Fox Kitchen Takeovers came from.
I started thinking about what we could do at Hotel Wrexham and how we could create something that felt different to our normal offer, so I made a few calls, had a few conversations and started putting some evenings together.
This October we are bringing guest chefs into the Savvy Fox kitchen to create special dining experiences for Wrexham.
The point is not simply to attach a known chef’s name to a menu.
I want these evenings to bring a different level of food experience into the area. Different ideas, different cooking styles, different flavours and that sense of occasion you get when dinner becomes the reason for going out rather than just part of the evening.
That is something I would like to see much more of in Wrexham.
Cities with great food scenes did not get there overnight.
They grew because people kept opening restaurants, chefs pushed themselves, customers became more adventurous and businesses were prepared to try things that had not necessarily been done locally before.
We already have the foundations in Wrexham, but I think we need more of that ambition around food.
More tasting menus. More guest chefs. More collaborations. More opportunities for local kitchen teams to work alongside different people. More evenings where the food itself is the event.
There is no reason Wrexham cannot have that.
For our own kitchen team, the takeovers are also an opportunity to work with different chefs and see how they approach a menu and a service.
That kind of exposure matters.
Hospitality is an industry where you learn constantly, and sometimes the quickest way to develop is simply to work alongside somebody who does things differently to you.
That is where the education element comes in for me.
Not in a classroom sense, and not because we are pretending one evening is going to change the industry, but because bringing new people and new ideas into Wrexham helps raise the bar.
Why Not Wrexham?
I do not want this to sound like Wrexham has nowhere good to eat, because that is not the case.
I want more ambitious food experiences here. I want more chefs choosing to come to Wrexham. I want people from outside the area travelling here for dinner instead of it always being the other way around.
There is no reason Liverpool, Manchester and Chester should have all of the fun.
The Kitchen Takeovers at Hotel Wrexham are only one small step, but they are a start.
If they work, I would love to build on them and bring even more chefs, ideas and different dining experiences into Wrexham.
Because the city is growing.
Its food scene should grow with it too.
Book tickets to out Savvy Fox Kitchen Takeover now
