Little Chef

Little Chef was a chain of restaurants in the United Kingdom, founded in 1958 by entrepreneur Sam Alper, who was inspired by American diners. The chain was famous for the "Olympic Breakfast" – its version of a full English – as well as its "Early Starter" and "Jubilee Pancakes". The restaurants were mostly located on the roadside near A roads, often paired with a Travelodge motel, a Burger King and a petrol station. The chain was also located along motorways in Moto Services, for a time.

The chain expanded rapidly throughout the 1970s, and its parent company would acquire the Happy Eater chain in the 1980s, its only major roadside competitor. When its owners converted all Happy Eater restaurants to Little Chef in the late 1990s, this allowed it to peak in scale with 439 restaurants. Little Chef began to face decline in the early 2000s, this mainly due to the chain expanding too fast, meaning it could not properly invest in all of its locations. Compared to its peak in the late 1990s, by 2005 the chain had lost almost half of its locations.

In 2007, the chain entered administration, marking 41 out of 239 restaurants to close. This was followed by another closure programme in 2012 to reduce the chain to 94 restaurants. In early 2017, licence owners Kout Food Group sold the remaining 70 locations to Euro Garages, who would convert the restaurants into their partner franchises such as Starbucks, Subway and Greggs. After Euro Garages licence expired, the remaining 36 restaurants were renamed EG Diner in January 2018, and were either converted or closed by the end of October 2018. The defunct Little Chef brand still remains owned by Kout Food Group; however, the trademark is now registered in Kuwait as the group are no longer operating in the United Kingdom.