James Close on Atlas at Rockliffe: 'I want it to become one of the world’s best restaurants'

James Close is opening new restaurant Atlas at the five-star hotel Rockliffe. He speaks to Ralph Blackburn about aiming big and giving diners a memorable experience.

If you ask James Close for one word about his stunning new restaurant at five-star hotel Rockliffe, he will tell you it is about the “experience”.

Close, who ran the two-Michelin Star Raby Hunt until it closed, before moving to Rockliffe to become its culinary director, will open the hotel’s new restaurant Atlas in September.

Unsurprisingly, for one of the UK’s leading chefs, he is not aiming small.

He tells The Yorkshire Post he’s eyeing up every accolade, including another Michelin Star, and wants to “try and become one of the world’s best restaurants”.

The project really “ignited the fire in me again”, he says. “I had been at the Raby for 14 years. It was one of those restaurants that was absolutely doing fine, we were making money - no issues,” he explains.

“It wasn’t capable of having any more work done to it. It was a listed building, there wasn’t any ground to build any more rooms.

"So what we achieved was as far as we could go – which would have been fine, but for me I want to achieve more.”

Atlas, a standalone restaurant in the 375-acre grounds of the luxury hotel in Hurworth-on-Tees, has been built over the last year to Close’s exact specifications.

The restaurant space is framed by large glass windows, which offer views of the expansive grounds on one side and a thoughtfully landscaped area on the other.

It is one of a number of new dining and bar options at Rockliffe, which Close is overseeing alongside his wife Maria.

However, the couple set to be based at the 36-cover Atlas restaurant to take diners through a journey of their experiences around the world.

“It’s not about gimmicks,” he says, “it’s a real high-end spec of where we’re taking my experiences of travelling around the world and creating dishes that have been inspired by those experiences.”

Diners will start in Atlas’ elegant bar with a special Champagne section and a menu of globally-inspired cocktails to accompany the food.

The food experience starts in the bar before customers are moved into the restaurant to begin with a flurry of small dishes inspired by the Close’s travels around the globe. These will include pintxos from the Basque Country, ajo blanco from Spain and ceviche from Mexico.

“We’ll lead onto some very high-end, bigger dishes that might have a bit more of a story to them so it might be inspired by my visit to the coast of Normandy,” Close says.

"Every dish has to have a sense of authenticity. It needs to be somewhere that I’ve travelled to or experienced.”

This might be a sequence of dishes inspired by the fishermen’s tradition of moules marinières from the Charente-Maritime French coast, near La Rochelle, or a Japanese inspired Wagyu beef dish.

“We really want to do what we were doing at the Raby and take it to another level,” Close says. “Raby we weren’t able to do the service side of it, because we were based in a small pub.

"But at the new restaurant, it’s going to give us that level of experience that we really want to show off.”

Diners will have the chance to book the chef’s table and get close, if you will, to the boss and his team in action.

The Closes travelled to Saint Vallier in the south of France to have three premium Molteni stoves custom made for the kitchen. This just one of example of how careful consideration has gone into every detail of Atlas.

Diners will also find items from Christofle, Riedel, Hering Berlin have been chosen due to their commitment to craftsmanship and design that Close says mirrors the restaurant’s own.

“Everything now is about experience, you can give people amazing food but they want more,” he says.

“They want you to grab them and give them something that you didn’t think you were going to get. Yes the food has to continue to evolve, but everything else now has to go with it.”

In charge of the wine is Manuel Ghezzi, who was previously head sommelier at The Connaught for three years when it won best bar in the world.

Diners will be able to choose from two wine pairings - one globally-inspired, and the other influenced by chateaus and vineyards that the Closes have visited. There will also be a non-alcoholic pairing.

“As we approach the opening of Atlas and Rockliffe, it is amazing to see our ideas become reality,” Close says.

“We are incredibly grateful to have this opportunity to create a restaurant and resort where skill, craftsmanship, and passion are celebrated.

"There has been a lot of hard work by so many people behind the scenes, and we can’t wait to open the bookings, and the doors, so that guests can experience Atlas.”

Mrs Close, who is head of pastry at Atlas, adds: “We feel very grateful that we have been able to build an amazing team and create a number of dining and bar concepts that we feel passionate about.

"As a team, we want to be able to have fun together and deliver great guest experiences that are unique and memorable. We can’t wait to welcome guests in September.”

Also opening at Rockliffe are Rialto, an all-day Italian-American restaurant that forms the social heart of the resort, and Ro, an intimate cocktail bar inspired by Japanese precision and industrial heritage, offering Izakaya-style snacks alongside Japanese whisky and sake.

The Closes have also been updating The Morning Room, which offers afternoon teas, Cafe Terra, a bakery serving fresh pastries, and The Clubhouse, which overlooks the hotel’s championship golf course.

Atlas will open Wednesday to Saturday for dinner from September, and lunch on Sundays from December.