The New World Trading Company has set 2 December for the opening of its latest new Botanist bar and restaurant in Warrington. It will be part of the Time Square development in the town, and will become the 19th Botanist.
The Alchemist is to open its first bar and restaurant in Scotland after securing a site within the St James development in Edinburgh. The 200-cover venue over 5,700 square feet will open when the mixed-use scheme launches next summer. Managing director Simon Potts said: “Edinburgh is one of the world’s great cities and a destination we’ve long admired, but we wanted to wait for the right opportunity to present itself. Edinburgh St James fits the bill brilliantly.” The Alchemist is meanwhile about to open in Portsmouth.
The team behind Mercato Metropolitano have just opened their second market hall—Mercato Mayfair on Audley Street in London. The four-floor hall has bars selling pasta, pizza, bao buns, seafood, sushi, cocktails, craft beer, coffee and much more. It is also acting as a community and cultural space for the area. The hall is in a Grade 1 listed former church and is open from 8am to 11pm, and midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Loungers has just opened the Piero Lounge in an old retail unit on Market Place in Nuneaton.
Bavarian bierkeller concept Munich Cricket Club has secured a second London location at West India Quay, in a deal brokered by Shelley Sandzer. Its original bar launched in Victoria in 2016. Munich Cricket Club joins brands at West India Quay including Pizza Pilgrims, Burger & Lobster and Drake & Morgan.
Barbecue restaurant Pitt Cue Co is to start again in London, the Evening Standard reports. It will begin on a ‘Flesh Mob’ pop-up basis, including a Thanksgiving dinner at Maison Bab, before seeking a permanent location in due course. It follows a move by founder Jamie Berger to buy back the rights to the Pitt Cue Co name, after the restaurant on Devonshire Square closed earlier this year.
Black Sheep Coffee is to open a site in Oxford. It is taking a 1,200 square feet unit on George Street, in a deal brokered by Davis Coffer Lyons.
Japanese curry chain CoCo Ichibanya is opening a second restaurant on James Street in Marylebone, near Bond Street station, in December. The brand has around 1,400 restaurants worldwide, and moved into the UK on London’s Great Newport Street last year.
The Gladwin Brothers opened a new restaurant called Sussex on Frith Street in Soho last week—their fourth London site and their first in the West End. Much of its food comes from the Gladwin’s family farm and local suppliers in Sussex. The group also runs Rabbit in Chelsea, The Shed in Notting Hill and Nutbourne in Battersea.
Indico, an Indian street food style restaurant in Shirley in the west Midlands, has just opened a second site at the Mailbox development in Birmingham.
Bristol-based Bandook Indian Kitchen is preparing to open a second restaurant on Milsom Place in Bath. The street food style concept has taken on the unit there previously run by Carluccio’s.
Sri Lankan street food style restaurant group The Coconut Tree has announced it will open its sixth restaurant in Bournemouth. It will join two sites in Bristol and one in each of Cardiff, Cheltenham and Oxford.
A Taiwanese pancake and snack concept called Wheelcake Island opened at Westfield London on Friday (15 November). It is a first standalone site for the brand, which also operates at Old Spitalfields Market. The deal for Westfield was brokered by Shelley Sandzer.
A new Mexican restaurant called Caldera has just opened on Mare Street in Hackney.
Canada-based coffeeshop and café chain Tim Hortons will open at East Gates in Leicester on 28 November, local media report.
The Suffolk-based brewer and pub operator Gusto Pronto has opened The Fox in Bulmer Tye near Sudbury. It has four other pubs in and around Bury St Edmonds, plus a brewshed.