Thai brand Giggling Squid opened a new restaurant on St Martin’s Square in Leicester this week. It is a 100-cover restaurant and a 35th opening for Giggling Squid.
The new Wonderland Restaurants group is partnering with Warner Bros and comic book brand DC to open a launch a major new immersive restaurant concept called Park Row on Brewer Street in Soho. It will cover 18,000 square feet of space and have five restaurant and three bar areas, each themed around DC’s comic characters. The venue is due to open in the spring. Katerina Mercury, Senior Asset Manager at The Crown Estate, said: “We are thrilled to be welcoming this truly ground-breaking concept and to provide a platform for the Wonderland team to redefine the standard for immersive dining experiences.”
A ten-pin bowling, bar and restaurant concept called Pins Social Club has just opened in Duke Street in Liverpool. It has 12 bowling lanes, an eating area and rooftop bar, plus karaoke, shuffleboard, pool and table tennis facilities. The food is being provided by Liverpool’s Red & Blue Restaurants group.
Sainsbury’s has opened a grab and go and café operation at its Local store in London’s Mansion House as part of a trial of new concept. The On the Go format incorporates a bakery, sushi concession and pizza oven, and has some tables for eating in. At least nine more trials are planned for cities including Bristol, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and Sainsbury’s has identified 130 Local stores where it thinks the concept could work.
The Ivy group plans to open on Grey Street in Newcastle, in a unit currently occupied by Byron, local media report. Its proposals are for a three-floor restaurant and bar. If the plans are approved, Byron would reportedly seek to open elsewhere in the city.
Restaurant and cocktail bar concept Gin & Juice group has opened a third site on Park Street in Bristol. The deal for the 1,600 square feet unit was brokered by Savills. Gin & Juice also operates venues in Cardiff and Cheltenham.
Pizza concept Zia Lucia has just opened its fourth restaurant, on Piazza Walk in Aldgate. The other three sites are in Hammersmith, Islington and Boxpark Wembley.
Three new traders have been announced for Buck Street Market, the new eco-led food and retail development in Camden. They are Glass Coffee, Wildflower, a fine dining concept from Irish chef Adrian Market, and a New York style pizza concept from Instagram chef Miguel Barclay.
Café and coffee brand Boston Tea Party has acquired to new sites, in Worthing and Lichfield. It continues an expansion of the brand, which has previously been largely based in the south west.
The Coaching Inn Group is opening in Bakewell after acquiring the Rutland Arms hotel. The group now has 17 sites in all.
Asian street food style concept Chi is opening two new sites in the next few months, in Basingstoke and Norwich. They join Chi’s current venues in Cambridge and Watford.
Black Rooster, a chain of six peri peri chicken restaurants in Scotland, is opening a new site in Greenock in March. Black Rooster currently has three restaurants in Glasgow and one in Coatbridge, Govan and Paisley.
Taco Bell has submitted plans to open a new restaurant in Maidstone in Kent, local media report.
Pitta bar chain Humpit Hummus opened its 13th unit at the Springs leisure development in Thorpe Park in Leeds this week. It plans to open six new sites a year over the next five years.
