It's very good news for those of us who live in Ickley. The Box Tree has really suffered over the past couple of years, barely being able to hold onto a chef, and being very limited by Madame Avis's preconceptions of what her restaurant should be--it seemed to ignore the world around it which could have been fine if the sort of cooking it was providing wasn't being bettered by pubs in the dales charging a tenth of the price. She also had little incentive to change the place because she owns so much property in Ickley, bought as result of money presumably made when the Box Tree was a success. She used it instead as a place to socialise and to do the upper class equivalent of propping up the bar chatting to her cronies. It's also a logical move as Guellar did a couple of weekend special sessions there earlier in the year (he seems to have been working as a consultant for the last year) In the last listing on my website, I'd shoved it down to fourth in Ikley alone, behind even the local Thai...a bit disingenuous on my part, but a sign of how fr it has falen from its hey-day. It also means that the building, which is one of the town's oldest, will be preserved. And while I hope the chintz goes, and the unctuousness of some of the waiting staff, I sincerely hope there's no attempt to gut the inside and turn it into Rascasse Mk.2 (I know it's hardly a wharf-side venue, but the delight is the small and inteimate rooms...)