Wagamama
Revolution Bars has revealed details of its first three openings of 2016. It is currently on site on Albert Dock in Liverpool, where it will be launching a Revolucion de Cuba, with another site secured for that brand in Reading. The other opening will be of its core Revolution brand in Stafford. The Revolucion de Cubas will be food-oriented sites of around 6,000 square feet with outdoor areas. The Liverpool and Stafford openings will open before the end of June, with Reading following in the autumn.
Shoryu Ramen has confirmed two new openings for the summer—one on Great Queen Street in Covent Garden and the other on Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester, its first venue outside London. Both sites will launch in the early summer. They will bring Shoryu Ramen’s total estate to six, joining restaurants on Regent Street, Denman Street, Kingly Court and Broadgate Circle. It also has a takeaway spot on Air Street.
Chilango has opened on Oxford Street in Manchester—its first site outside London. It marked the launch with a giveaway of several thousand burritos last week.
MOD Pizza is to open its first UK restaurant in Leeds. It has taken a 4,000 square feet site at the Cardigan Fields leisure park off the Kirkstall Road. MOD has previously set out ambitious expansion plans for the UK, with Sir Charles Dunstone among the team bringing the brand over from the US.
Ed’s Easy Diner has opened its first restaurant in partnership with the Welcome Break network of motorway service stations. It is at the South Mimms station off Junction 23 of the M25. Ed’s and Welcome Break plan to open more restaurants in the next few years.
Caribbean restaurant and bar concept Cottons will open its new flagship site in Notting Hill tomorrow (29 April). It is on Notting Hill Gate and joins the original Cottons, opened 30 years ago in Camden, and a venture at Boxpark in Shoreditch. The Notting Hill site will have a Salon de Rhum with more than 300 varieties available.
The Stable, the craft cider and pizza concept backed by Fuller’s, has opened its long-awaited first restaurant in London. The Whitechapel site is its 14th in all.
The Coaching Inn Group has acquired the Golden Lion pub and hotel in St Ives in Cambridgeshire. The £2m-plus deal is the fifth acquisition for the group in the last year, and it plans to add another four sites in 2016.
Five Guys’ latest new opening in Luton is expected to open in the next couple of weeks, local media report. It has taken on a site previously occupied by Toby Carvery in the Mall in the town’s St George’s Square.
Turtle Bay will open in Staines on 7 June. It has taken a unit on the high street in the town.
TGI Friday’s has submitted plans to launch a restaurant at the Cambridge Leisure shopping and entertainment development.
US-based Tex Mex concept Taco Bell has secured two new sites under franchise in Sheffield, with more in Barnsley and Nottingham.
Fellow Tex Mex brand Chimichanga has set 27 June for the opening date of its new restaurant at the Intu shopping centre in Derby.
A new casual chicken-based concept called Coop will open on Bold Street in Liverpool next weekend. It succeeds a restaurant previously known as Chez Le Coq.
Camerons Brewery will open a branch of its Head of Steam pub concept in Hull at the end of June.
Wagamama has confirmed that it will open a restaurant in Peterborough in the autumn. It will be on Long Causeway near Cathedral Square.
Mexican restaurant Cielo Blanco will open on Exmouth Market next Friday (6 May). It already has a restaurant at the Trinity Centre in Leeds, which launched in 2013. The concept specialises in sharing boards and feast menus, and the new site will have a basement bar with tequila and mezcal drinks.
Scotland-based Italian concept Tony Macaroni will open in an old retail unit in Irvine. The 158-cover restaurant will be the group’s 13th in Scotland in all.
Noodle bar brand Wok & Go has opened on Finchley Road in London. It is its first restaurant in the capital.
Street food collective KERB is compiling a new 12-day market for the Alchemy Festival at the Southbank Centre from 19 to 30 May. It will have an emphasis on curries and will host traders including Dosa Deli, Horn OK Please, Kothu Kothu, Baba G’s, Yum Afghan, Curry Cook House and Ladle & Skillet.
Loungers has opened its latest new Cosy Club restaurant and bar in Derby. It follows a £750,000 revamp of an old hotel on Victoria Street.
Darwin & Wallace’s neighbourhood all-day bar, café and restaurant No 197 Chiswick Fire Station has opened in Chiswick. Darwin & Wallace is backed by the Imbiba Partnership, and the Chiswick site is its fourth location in all. Managing director Mel Marriott said: “We are incredibly excited to bring our modern vision of the local pub to the heart of Chiswick, one of my favourite London spots. Our ambitions at Darwin & Wallace are to work with the best artisans of design, food and drink and No 197 Chiswick Fire Station we feel is no exception. Located in one of London’s loveliest boroughs with the old fire station, the fourth addition to our group is rich in independent spirit and we cannot wait to welcome you through the doors.”
A 54-cover bar called Four Sisters Townhouse will open on Groveland Court off Bow Lane in the City in June. It will be a 720 square feet venue themed around a Victorian townhouse, selling craft cocktails, wine and beer plus bar snacks and sharing dishes. It is a sister site to the Four Sisters Bar on Canonbury Lane off Upper Street in Islington, set up by Simon Bastable and Andrew Green. It will open every weekday and for private hire at weekends.
Papa John’s has opened in Hereford.
