Little Chef, St Leonards. Picture: Google Just over the Dorset border was a branch alongside the A31 in St Leonards near Ringwood. Forte first got their hands on the building between 1968 and 1972 and it was the third Little Chef restaurant to open on the A31. It was a well chosen site considering that there were no other Little Chefs on this section of the A31 to be found nearby, therefore it helped to increase their presence in the area. Travelodge was granted permission to open at the site, but Little Chef owners came up with the idea of merging both lodge and restaurant into the same building. This was done by incorporating the Little Chef into the bottom corner of the Travelodge.