Simpsons Restaurant in Birmingham will close after 32 years in business, ending the run of one of the city’s most celebrated dining rooms. The Michelin-starred restaurant in Edgbaston confirmed the decision in a statement sent by email and posted on social media on Thursday.
Andreas Antona said he put the restaurant on the market more than a year ago after ongoing health issues, but three attempted sales fell through. In a message that mixed regret with plain realism, he said he did not want it to end this way, but that the economy, the amount of time and money already invested and the pressure of keeping the business going made closure the most sensible decision.
Simpsons has held a Michelin star since 1999, giving it a rare long run at the top end of Birmingham’s restaurant scene. Antona said the venue had played a major role in training many talented local chefs and front of house staff, and he also said his sister venue, The Cross, would remain open.
The closure lands at a difficult moment for hospitality, with Antona saying the current climate was the toughest he had experienced in more than 50 years in the industry. He also said calls for reasonable government support had fallen on deaf ears, and added that without the work of the team, money from his own pocket and the loyalty of guests, the moment would have come far sooner.
The announcement drew hundreds of messages from diners who remembered milestone meals and special occasions at the restaurant. Laura O’Reilly from Bromsgrove said she was absolutely gutted and called Simpsons the Mecca of Birmingham’s food scene, adding that her family had always celebrated big milestone events there and that it was a really, really special place.
That reaction underlines what is ending now: not just a restaurant, but a fixture of Birmingham’s dining identity. The question for the city is no longer whether Simpsons can be saved. It cannot. The story now shifts to how Edgbaston and Birmingham’s wider food scene absorbs the loss of a name that helped define them for more than three decades.
