Revolution Bar
The Revolution Bars Group will open a new Revolution bar in Stafford in May. It will be in the Riverside area of the town, which is currently the subject of a £70m redevelopment. It is Revolution’s first new opening of the year and its 61st venue in all.
Thai brand Patara will open its sixth London restaurant on Hampstead high street in the next couple of weeks. The two-floor, 110-cover restaurant will be open from 11am to 11pm and anticipates an average spend of £30.
Patara also operates in Soho, Oxford Circus, Knightsbridge and south Kensington, and has many international sites too. Managing director Andy Holman said: “We are very excited about expanding our restaurant portfolio across London and look forward to welcoming new and existing customers to our Patara restaurant in Hampstead.”
Prezzo opened at the redeveloped Market Place leisure complex in Bolton yesterday (23 March). A craft beer bar called Great Ale Year Round has also launched there, with Nando’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and El Mexicana to follow soon.
Mitchells & Butlers’ Harvester brand opens in Middlewich on 9 May. It has taken over a pub previously run as the Salt Cellar. Before that comes an opening in Hull on 4 May—a conversion of a former Orchid site.
Prezzo has also secured planning permission for a site in Carlisle. It is taking on the unit occupied by Andalusian bar and restaurant, which will close in early May.
Whitbread is to open new branches of its Brewers Fayre brand on sites currently run under its Taybarns format. The switch will be made at pubs in towns including Barnsley, Coventry, South Shields, Swansea and Wigan.
City Pub Company has acquired the Varsity pub in Southampton. It will reopen in a new format towards the end of the summer.
Tapas Revolution has reached five sites with an opening in Sheffield’s Meadowhall centre.
Northcote Leisure Group, the operator behind the Michelin-starred Northcote and the Ribble Valley Inns pub collection, is opening a new Café Northcote in Blackburn. It has taken a unit at the town’s Cathedral Quarter and should open in mid-May.
Gusto will open in Lytham St Annes on the Lancashire coast in the next few weeks. It is a 130-cover restaurant with an outdoor terrace for another 40.
Casual Dining Group’s Bella Italia and Café Rouge brands are all considering openings in Lincoln, according to the Lincolnshire Echo.
Nando’s, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Costa are to open at a new leisure complex that is being developed in Oldham, subject to legals. The Oldham scheme is turning the former town hall into a cinema and restaurant complex, with work due to finish by the end of the year. More restaurant brands for the centre will be announced soon.
Individual Restaurants has submitted an application to open a branch of its Restaurant Bar & Grill brand at the new dining quarter in Chester. It will join Las Iguanas, Coast to Coast and Chimichanga there.
Subway has reached the milestone of 5,000 stores in Europe with an opening in Livingston in Scotland.
CAU has just opened at Brindleyplace in Birmingham—its 17th restaurant in the UK.
Marston’s has opened at Teal Farm in Washington in the north east. It is its first new-build pub for its franchised operation.
The growing Darwin & Wallace group is opening a fifth location called No 29 at the Circus West development at Battersea Power Station. It will be a modern neighbourhood pub concept, and should open early next year. Darwin & Wallace is being funded by the Imbiba Partnership and has three venues already open: No 11 in Belgravia, No 32 in Clapham and No 1 in Richmond, with a fourth due to open in Chiswick next month. Darwin & Wallace managing director Mel Marriott said: “We are all incredibly excited to be a part of Battersea Power Station’s regeneration development and the growing community within it.”
Other openings confirmed for the first round of tenants at Circus West at Battersea Power Station include Pedler Cru, billed as a neighbourhood eatery with daily changing menu; Vagabond, an independent wine bar and shop that currently operators on Charlotte Street; Flour Power City Bakery, an organic all-day café and bakery that has been an acclaimed supplier up to now; and The CoffeeWorks Project, a coffeeshop concept that already operates in Angel, Leadenhall and Blackfriars Road.
More than 22,000 square feet of food and drink space is being freed up for new openings at the new leisure extension of the Royal Victoria Place shopping centre in Tunbridge Wells. The local council has given the green light to plans for Hermes Investment Management.
Cambridge-based beer house Pint Shop is to open a second venue on George Street in Oxford in late summer. It has taken a 5,600 square feet unit over two floors, with a 110-cover bar, 110-cover restaurant space and two private dining rooms. It is 60% bigger than the Cambridge original. Co-owner Richard Holmes said: “The location is perfect and we’re confident we can make it a real success. There’s a massive gap in the Oxford market for us.”
Sourced Market has opened its second site in Marylebone. It follows the original at St Pancras station. A third location is following in Victoria later this year.
The Head of Steam brand from Camerons has applied for permission to open on a site previously occupied by the Purple Pig pub in Hull. The Head of Steam group currently operates in Sheffield, Newcastle, Leeds, Newcastle, Durham, Huddersfield, Gateshead, Tynemouth, Norton and Sunderland.
Papa John’s has opened in Ilkeston in Derbyshire.
Stonegate Pub Company has reopened the Britannia pub at Monument in London after a £250,000 refurb.
A new wine bar and retailer called Shepherd Market Wine House has opened between Piccadilly and Curzon Street in Mayfair. It previously ran as a pop-up before Christmas, and now has a permanent space with seating, tasting area and private cellar rooms.
Le Bistrot Pierre will open its 16th restaurant in the summer—in Weston-super-Mare. It will have 180 covers and continues a geographical expansion for the brand beyond its roots in the north of England.
