HERE’S a first look at a new restaurant set to open in York city centre on Monday (February 17) after a £200,000 redesign.

Printers Apprentice, in Coffee Yard, off Stonegate, will be open from 10am-late during the week and on weekends.

The business is run by owner, Sean Wood, and his business partner, Robert McGuiness. 

Mr Wood said the menu will be "bistro fusion" with a twist of familiar flavours. There will be a Sunday lunch menu including bubble and squeak with black pudding on top and tear and share Yorkshire puddings with gravy.

Mr Wood said: “We will be serving a full lunch menu, a vegan menu, afternoon tea, charcuterie, breads to share.

“It’s all locally sourced produce from the meat and fish to the veg, everything is from within a stone’s throw.

“We are also planning to do a mid-week supper club where diners can get tips from head chef, Cohen, and his team."

Set over three floors - including a basement featuring a snug with the original coffee roasting ovens - the ground floor will be home to seating with a bar with stairs up to an open plan kitchen and dining area on the first floor. In the basement there will be self-service wine dispensers where people can buy premium wine by the glass. The bar on the ground floor will also be serving speciality cocktails, "the likes of which have never been seen before".

Mr Wood said: “It’s a small, intimate restaurant and we’ve made a bit of a theatre of the kitchen so people can see their food being cooked.”

A lot of thought has gone in to the details with glass-topped tables showcasing original printer’s blocks and coffee beans and wall art including the red and black Printer’s Devil, who sits high up on thee wall at the Stonegate entrance to the yard.

Printer’s apprentices were called ‘devils’ as their skin was inevitably stained black by the ink used in printing and black was associated with the dark arts.

The listed building, next to Barley Hall, which was formerly known as Alley Cats, has quite a history to it as both a coffee shop and printers was home to Thomas Gent’s printing business from 1724-42.

Gent published his own History of York, in 1730 and during the Great Frost of 1739, he set up a press on the frozen River Ouse.