The White Brasserie Company has signed a deal to open in the town of Highcliffe in Dorset. It has agreed a lease with Ei Commercial Properties on the Galleon pub, which will reopen after a major refurbishment in July as The Oaks. It will have 100 covers and more tables in a garden area. The launch is the tenth site development between the two groups. The White Brasserie Company, a sister company to the Brasserie Blanc Chain fronted by Raymond Blanc, has 19 pubs in all.
Red’s True Barbecue is opening a permanent restaurant in Leicester, following a period of trading at BrewDog’s bar in the city. The 75-cover site is housed above the BrewDog bar on Friar Lane and launches on Friday (3 May).
Australian craft brewery Little Creatures opened a taproom and restaurant by Regents Canal and Granary Square in King’s Cross this week. It will have an on-site microbrewery and a mezzanine level and will be open all day. It is a first UK opening for the brewery, though it has several other international locations.
US burger brand Wahlburgers will start its UK roll-out with an opening on James Street in Covent Garden shortly, according to reports.
The New World Trading Co’s bar and restaurant brand The Florist has opened at the Intu centre in Watford. The 9,000 square feet site is the third Florist, after Bristol and Liverpool
Loungers has agreed a deal to open at the Bourne Place leisure development in Sittingbourne in Kent. Nando’s and PIzzaExpress have already signed up there, along with dessert restaurant Creams.
Hickory’s Smokehouse is to open in Poynton in Cheshire—its tenth site. It has taken on an old pub building in the town. The other nine Hickory’s sites are in Burton Green, Castle Bromwich, Chester, Gresty Green, Rhos-on-Sea, Southport, Wall Heath, West Kirby and Worcester.
JD Wetherspoon has had a licensing application approved for the planned opening of a major new pub in an old bingo hall building on Nicolson Street in Edinburgh. The £1.5m conversion will create a two-floor pub with 4,000 square feet of space. Wetherspoon already has six pubs in the city. The company meanwhile opened a new pub this week in Carlow, south-west of Dublin in Ireland.
Pilgrim, winner of the BBC’s My Million Pound Menu series, is to open its first permanent site at Duke Street Market in Liverpool in mid-May. The concept is based on the pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain and will offer small plates and tasting menus inspired by food from France, Portugal and Spain. Pilgrim has previously operated a series of pop-up ventures.
Yorkshire-based vegan hummus and pitta bread concept Humpit Hummus is opening a site in Huddersfield in mid-May. It will be situated opposite the town’s university. Humpit Hummus already has six sites, in York, Sheffield, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Leeds, where it has two.
Bakery, patisserie and restaurant PAUL is opening a second site in its Express format on Tottenham Court Road in the next few weeks. The first Express is at St Pancras.
The France-based Big Mamma Group is to open a second restaurant in June—Sicilian-style Circolo on Rathbone Square. It follows the success of its first UK site, Gloria in Shoreditch.
Bristol’s healthy eating and coffee shop brand Friska is launching an eighth site in the city in mid-June, on the corner of Queen Square and Prince Street.
Italian street food concept Wolf has applied to open in Spinningfields in Manchester. It already has a site in Manchester, in the Arndale centre, and others in Nottingham, Boxpark Wembley, Reading, Chiswick and Leeds.
