US fried chicken brand Popeyes opened its first UK restaurant at Westfield Stratford late last week. It plans to open ten to 15 new restaurants over 2022, and has ambitions to reach around 350 locations in all.
The Hostmore group’s cocktail bar and restaurant brand 63rd+1st is opening its fourth location on Trinity Street in Cambridge in the Spring. It will join sites in Cobham, Glasgow and Harrogate, the last of which opened this week. The 63rd & 1st brand is modelled on the original Fridays bars in the US, and named after their first location in Manhattan.
The Farmer J brand opened its sixth restaurant on Paternoster Square in St Paul’s this week. Its other sites are on Leadenhall Street, King William Street, Canada Place, Finsbury Avenue and Jubilee Place, and more openings are due early next year, including on Regent Street and London Bridge.
BrewDog has just opened its latest new bar in Bradford. Red’s True Barbecue is running the food side of the operation.
Hall & Woodhouse will open a new pub in Mindenhurst near Deepcut in Surrey in March, called the Frog.
Wagamama has applied for a licence to open at Charter Way in Braintree in Essex, local media report. It wants to open in a unit that was previously occupied by Las Iguanas.
The Mission Mars group has set 6 December for the launch of the second Albert’s Schloss venue at Chamberlain Square in Birmingham. It will have three bars over two floors, with an outside terrace too. The original Albert’s Schloss is on Peter Street in Manchester.
The Breakfast Club opened in Chelmsford this week—its 13th location and third outside London.
Yorkshire-based Salt Beer Factory is opening two taproom-style pubs in London, after acquiring sites at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich and near Deptford station that were previously run by Hop Stuff.
The Real Greek has signed for an opening at Bluewater London. Its 155-cover, 3,900 square feet unit will open before the end of November. The signing means that Landsec has now fully let The Plaza at Bluewater.
Yard Sale Pizza has this week opened its ninth London location, in Crofton Park in Lewisham. It joins sites in Balham, Clapton, Crystal Palace, East Dulwich, Finsbury Park, Hackney, Leytonstone and Walthamstow.
Two Scottish brands have signed for openings at Hammerson’s Silverburn development in Glasgow. The team behind Ayrshire’s Arthur Street Kitchen and Kitchen 77 is launching a concept called stàilinn Scottish Kitchen in Spring 2022, while health-focused café and cold-pressed juice bar Juicy has signed for its second Glasgow outlet, which opens this week.
Leon this week opened a new outlet within the ASDA supermarket in Milton Keynes. More joint openings are planned by the two companies, who share the same owners in EG Group.
German bratwurst brand Extrawurst is moving into the UK with a restaurant at the Merry Hill retail development near Dudley in the West Midlands in mid-December. The brand has around 30 restaurants in Germany.
The JKS Restaurants group and James Knappett have opened their second London pub together—the George on Great Portland Street. An upstairs restaurant will follow early next year. Their first collaboration was on the Cadogan Arms in Chelsea.
JKS Restaurants has also launched its first ever pop-up called VIỆTPopulaire in London’s Chinatown. The 2,500 square feet restaurant on Rupert Street is selling Vietnamese street food style dishes until for a limited run until 19 December. JKS has held the Rupert Street unit since 2017.
JD Wetherspoon opened The Navigation Inn in the Kings Norton area of Birmingham this week. Two more launches in Ireland are following in mid-December: the Arundel Gate in Waterford and the South Strand in Dublin.
To read last week’s new openings round-up, click here.
