Pipe of Port on the market for £325,000

11:00am Friday 13th July 2012 in News By Jasmin McDermott

Moving on – owners Steve Jones and Janet Cliff with estate agent Mike Gray outside the Pipe of Port in Southend Moving on – owners Steve Jones and Janet Cliff with estate agent Mike Gray outside the Pipe of Port in Southend

ONE of Southend’s most popular restaurants is on the market for £325,000.

The Pipe of Port wine bar and restaurant in the High Street has been the pride of husband and wife team Steve and Susan Jones and sister Janet Cliff for the past 32 years.

Steve and his family travelled from Manchester in 1981 searching for the ideal restaurant and after an extensive search, set their hearts on the Pipe of Port.

Sadly Susan, 57, died in July 2010 following a battle with ovarian cancer.

Steve has high hopes the restaurant, described as a Dickensian, candle-lit wine bar with mahogany tables and sawdust covered floors, will continue to flourish under new ownership.

He said: “It is a very sad decision, but we feel the Pipe deserves some fresh blood to keep it going for the next 20 years.

“It was a great source of comfort during these last few years, but it is now time to face a new challenge.”

As well as whipping up culinary treats, Steve has made several television appearances discussing wine and food on Sky, BBC and ITV, as well as filming the five short film pieces on cooking Greek food for former breakfast show GMTV.

He said: “We have loved every minute of our time here at the Pipe. We have had a lot of fun along the way and we have been given opportunities to visit vineyards all over the wine world.

“The people have been so kind to us over all these years that we feel we are letting lots of loyal staff and customers down.

“But we can’t go on forever and now is the time to leave.”

Mike Gray, of Dedman Gray estate agents, said: “We have already experienced a great deal of interest in the business.

“It is unusual to be offering a business and premises that have been so carefully looked after for such a long time.”

Comments(16)

reptile says...
12:02pm Fri 13 Jul 12

Costs nearly as much to eat there.

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BIRLIS says...
2:39pm Fri 13 Jul 12

Probably one of the best value restaurants in Southend, assuming you want something decent to eat and a good range of wines. I use the Pipe on a regular basis. Hopefully it will continue to provide the same quality under its new management and not "dumb down". Interestingly, the better restaurants are certainly more full full more of the time than the cheap and nasty places at the moment.

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bignosechaff says...
4:01pm Fri 13 Jul 12

Nice food. But surly waitresses. Also service is slow. Who would pay that much for an out of date restaurant when you could start a new one for a fraction of that.

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BIRLIS says...
5:14pm Fri 13 Jul 12

Out of date? I would suggest traditional. The Pipe is usually busy. If the is the cost of the property and the business name and contacts etc it strikes me as pretty cheap. It is hard to put a price on a business's reputation against having to fight to build one. I would imagine a seamless takeover, with no impact to to service at first, would keep the client base happy. New twists could then be introduced gradually. Hopefully the chef will stay on...

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newcommuter says...
8:41pm Fri 13 Jul 12

Firmly on BIRLIS's side on this one. Excellent value and choice (in my experience) and Steve Jones is a very amiable and knowledgeable man. Unless things have gone severely downhill in the last 6 months (my last visit) I think reptile and bignosechaff (chav) are living up to their usernames.

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Brunning999 says...
11:01pm Fri 13 Jul 12

Excellent pies, and a different to most attomosphere.

You pay a bit more but get quality.

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bignosechaff says...
11:20pm Fri 13 Jul 12

newcommuter wrote:
Firmly on BIRLIS's side on this one. Excellent value and choice (in my experience) and Steve Jones is a very amiable and knowledgeable man. Unless things have gone severely downhill in the last 6 months (my last visit) I think reptile and bignosechaff (chav) are living up to their usernames.
Thats your opinion. I was in there last week and it was empty by 9.30. It used to be great in the 90's. I guess thats why their trying to sell it. If it was still a viable business his son would take it over.

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newcommuter says...
9:40am Sat 14 Jul 12

Fair comment bignosechaff, your experience is more recent than mine.

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v.randy says...
11:48am Sat 14 Jul 12

Gone down hill last 6 months.
Always empty..won't go back.
I go to Cafe Munchies now .

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tophatdt says...
12:15pm Sat 14 Jul 12

I dont care if it's quiet in there sometimes.....the pies are superb and havent changed during 30 years....Nats lager and the wines..heaven....I can only hope the new owners will not change it at all. I have never received a surly or slow service from the staff. The only restaurant I eat in at Southend-on-Sea.

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APR says...
3:15pm Sat 14 Jul 12

The problem with good restaurants being sold, is that so often the people taking them over only have one thing in mind, Profit !

I've been to a number of restaurants over the years, which have gone rapidly down hill when they've changed hands.

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BIRLIS says...
8:27am Sun 15 Jul 12

v.randy wrote:
Gone down hill last 6 months.
Always empty..won't go back.
I go to Cafe Munchies now .
Not quite the same though, is it? It's really a voice of 3 in Southend, in my opinion; The Pipe, Onyx and Toulouse. The Roslin also seems to be getting better again, but there is nowhere else I would go regularly at the moment....

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BIRLIS says...
8:46am Sun 15 Jul 12

Of course, I did not mention some of the excellent Asian, African, Arabic etc restaurants, but I am not sure they are really competing in the same space.

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RobertFS says...
2:33pm Sun 15 Jul 12

Thanks Steve for so many good years.
Always a pleasure to be there

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R85 says...
1:34pm Mon 16 Jul 12

I agree with earlier comments regards this being out of date. It’s been years but the last time I was in there the roof wasn’t tall enough for a dwarf, the place was tiny and it just felt very old and therefore decrepit! I’m sure theres loads of people that like this, especially in this carrot crunching area (compared to London where I’m from) but not for me! Modern, plush, executive, exuberant, futuristic – this is what everything should be, everywhere! Older establishments are there purely and simply because they’re old! There’s nothing superior about something being old, quite the opposite in fact. To like a place simply because its old (or “traditional”) seems like you must not have your own mind and are simply follow the belief that traditional best! Tis a bit like old cars really – it is absolute fact that older cars are so so so inferior to modern cars (unless you prefer the way old ones look which to me is unfathomable – they were boxes on wheels) but people love them!? Why? Nostalgia I guess? Christmas pudding is fookin horrible so why eat it? I never do – have your own mind and don’t like or do something coz its traditional!

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little ray of sunshine says...
3:09pm Mon 16 Jul 12

Went there fairly recently and to be honest it was nothing to rave about. Expensive and barely edible. Waitress was rude. We stopped by KFC on the way home infact.

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