In an Instagram post, Mansell confirmed that Lilac’s final dinner service will be held on 3 August, with the restaurant hosting special events over the first and last weekend of July to mark its closure.
“Across these weekends, myself and chefs will be preparing a very special tasting menu that truly speaks of the English summertime and is packed full of wild edible treats,” Mansell said.
“It will be a weekend full of talks about wild foods and myself and chefs are working hard already to prepare, ferment and preserve ingredients that will make their way to this menu.
“Think magnolias, ground ivy, wild alliums, seaweeds, forsythia and other flowers, grasses and more.”
Mansell launched Lilac in 2021 down the road from her fine dining restaurant Robin Wylde, which itself opened the year before and eventually closed in 2023.
It serves a menu focused on locally sourced produce and wild foods foraged by Mansell and her team from the Jurassic Coast.
Earlier this year, Lilac announced that it was moving away from serving small plates, as it had since its launch, to instead offer both a set menu and tasting menu, aligning it closer in concept with Robin Wylde.
Its closure, the reason for which has not been given, will bring an end to Mansell’s restaurant presence in Lyme Regis.
“There is no sadness in us closing, rather a gratitude and a trust in the process, there is the closing of a chapter, a clearing of space for what is to come,” the chef continued.
She added that she was excited to see Lilac ‘finish on a high’, and hinted at plans to come saying there are ‘provisions for the future’.