About Us

The story begins nearly twenty-two years ago when Sam Sixton was finishing his last term as a student at catering college in Northampton. A conversation took place some miles away in Cornwall between his father, Bill Sixton, and his parents’ neighbours, which was to have a profound impact on Sam’s life. The neighbours owned a small tea and coffee house in Fore Street, Fowey called the Pendragon and wanted to sell it. After what seemed like an inordinately short period of time a deal had been struck and Bill and Sam became the new owners.

Sam finished his catering course and unlike most of his fellow students went straight into the building trade! He spent that winter doing internal building works to enlarge the seating area and in April 1988 Sam’s opened its doors for business for the first time. Sam’s, which boasted a staff complement of Sam, his dad who retired from the business after the first five years and a couple of waitresses, began life as a burger bar which, like a lot of Cornwall, closed between November and March. Over the years Sam’s has evolved into the relaxed bistro that it is today – open from noon to late seven days a week with ten permanent and ten part time staff.

The three ingredients that a successful restaurant needs are good staff, good ambience and good food and Sam’s has all three in abundance.

Sam’s staff are a mix of people who have come together to create a great team. Not only have they come together but they have stayed together! Several members of staff have been at Sam’s for many years with restaurant and bar managers Scott Griffin and Sam Turner leading the way with 18 years a piece.

They are followed by Sam Sixton’s wife and business partner Emma Sixton who joined the team 16 years ago. Head chef Phil Kidd and waitress Aleida Guerrerro both have 10 years each under their aprons and then comes a relative newcomer in second chef Charles Leighton-Jones who has barely finished his apprenticeship having only joined the team seven years ago!

As soon as you walk through the door of Sam’s you get a feeling of fun. The building started life as a merchant’s house dating from circa 1380 and you can see an original stone wall which is exposed and forms one side of the restaurant. The décor of the restaurant is 60’s style and has a pink and green colour scheme with intimate booths. The vast array of memorabilia of pop music adorning the walls is for sale and together with the background music helps to create a very relaxed atmosphere. Twenty-one years on and whilst burgers still feature prominently on the menu with twelve varieties to choose from including beef, fish and vegetarian varieties these have been joined by an abundance of fresh fish dishes.

The service is refreshingly relaxed and the food is good and reasonably priced. All told it is a tried and tested winning formula which has been developed over the years and which is why it is so popular.