Blue Moon
The Award Winning Famous Blue Moon, is an institution in Chester. A 1950-60’s time-warp packed with original furniture and memorabilia from the days of the emerging era of rock and pop music, which in those days gave rise to a new form of meeting place – the coffee bar, a ‘trendy’ place for young people to meet and drink a more sophisticated cup of coffee – Italy’s Gaggia coffee machines appeared making real Espresso coffee, often topped with steam-frothed milk - the forerunner to now so popular Cappuccino and Latte coffees.
Another essential feature of the coffee-bar was a Jukebox.
The Famous Blue Moon, situated on the banks of the River Dee here in Chester has an original Ami Continental Jukebox from 1962 – with 100 discs this was a ‘Rolls Royce’ of it’s time and today is a rare and highly sought after machine.
And a Gaggia coffee machine is at the heart of what is referred to locally as Chester’s best cup of coffee.
The Blue Moon has all the coffee bar favourites, bacon sandwiches, all day breakfasts, cakes etc. and these days, employs 2 chefs who look after an extensive selection of freshly cooked food.
The Blue Moon’s Chef’s Menu now takes the experience up to restaurant standard, constantly changing through the season, traditional home-made pies share listing with Mediterranean, Middle & Far Eastern cuisine and Tex-Mex.
The business remains privately owned. In fact it changed hands this year following the retirement of Linda Barnard who had sympathetically restored The Blue Moon in the 1990’s when she added much of the café’s collection of memorabilia. New owners are Philip Clutton and David Hoyle, well known local businessmen who recently returned to Chester after creating a multi award winning gastro-pub in the Derbyshire Dales, have also added more original 1960’s pieces, and will continue to uphold the tradition of this magical era.