Covid pandemic gave fed-up Chesterfield restaurant owner a renewed hunger to continue in business

Marcella Kirk, who runs Maison Mes Amis on Chatsworth Road, said: “Pre pandemic I’d have sold it tomorrow, I’d had enough of it; pandemic hit, we’re fighting for our economic life and that was a challenge for me and we hit it head on."

Now as she marks a decade since opening the French-style restaurant, she says she’s really looking forward to the next 10 years and beyond behind the bar of a place she calls her family home.

"When you come in here we want you to feel you’re in our home and I treat it like it’s my home,” said Marcella, who lives upstairs in the property.

Beyond the impressive mock Tudor exterior, the atmosphere is cosy, welcoming and homely as customers are welcomed with a smile and a hug.

Marcella, 52, said: "It's what keeps us going and I do wonder what new people think on a Friday night because you literally are hug after hug after hug; people who come in hug you and you're just genuinely pleased to see them because they are part of your life."

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The garden area at the back of the restaurant has been kitted out as if it was a living room with a French wood-burning stove right at the heart of the area for those chilly winter nights.

France is never far from Marcella’s mind and forms a massive part of the backdrop of her life both personally and in business.

She said: "I had my own business in France, a holiday business. Before that I worked for Thomson Holidays, I worked for Britannia Airways, I was a stewardess for 12 years and all I know is how to look after people. I'm not trained to do anything else.”

Nobody can ever accuse Marcella of not putting in 100% into Maison Mes Amis, which is what has made the restaurant successful and a feature of the Chesterfield hospitality scene. She said: "I think it's a very tough business to be in so unless it’s your life and you have a lifestyle that revolves around it then it's a very difficult thing to run, it is if you want to be as personal as we are.

"We got a wedding licence here six years ago so you can actually get married here. Every wedding is like 'that's my daughter's wedding' it's personal we'll make sure it's the best day of your life.”

Miss Kirk says she plans to celebrate the 10th birthday of Maison Mes Amis with parties and a 2,022 kilometre race through the Sahara Desert.

But she says she's not done yet with the restaurant and is already planning for the next decade, welcoming in new and regular customers into her house.