Frontier Pubs, the managed pubs partnership between Ei and Food & Fuel, has opened the Victoria Tavern on Holloway Road near the Emirates football stadium. It is the seventh opening under the joint venture. The pub was previously known as Liquor Works, and is adopting Frontier’s offer of craft beer and pizzas, plus a new ‘arcade bar’ area of games. Peter Myers, commercial director at Food & Fuel, said: “We’re very excited to open this latest site, which is the perfect location for us with our strong focus on sport and quality beer. Getting the best out of each site is something we work very hard on, and we feel the arcade bar will create a real point of difference in the area and generate an additional pull when it’s not match day.”
BrewDog opens its latest new bar in Reading on Friday (16 March) as it continues a rapid expansion around the UK. It is located on Castle Street in the town.
Wasabi will open on Russell Square shortly, having secured a new £30m facility with HSBC to fund London openings.
Stonegate Pub Company opened a new branch of its Walkabout bar brand in Newbury on Thursday (15 March). It acquired a site previously run by JD Wetherspoon. The bar will open from 10am to 2am every day. The Walkabout brand has also just reopened on Woodhouse Lane in Leeds after a £600,000 refurbishment.
The Restaurant Group is to open a second Frankie & Benny’s restaurant in Plymouth, at British Land’s Bretonside Drake Circus leisure development. Zizzi, Byron and Wagamama are also in discussions to take units, according to the Plymouth Herald, though leases have yet to be agreed. Drake Circus is due to open in autumn 2019.
Zizzi is taking a unit at the new Exchange development in Aylesbury, according to local media. It should open there in November, alongside three other restaurant brands who are yet to be named.
Hale restaurant and bar Victors is to open a second location in April, on the rooftop terrace of the Westgate Oxford centre. It follows a £1.8m investment in a dining space for 120 covers, a bar area and an outdoor terrace. The Victors brand is owned by East Coast Concepts, along with sister brand neighbourhood. More openings are planned. Founder James Hitchen said: “As a brand we are ready to take the next step and set down roots in the south, and Oxford felt like the perfect new home for us.”
A new branch of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage Kitchen and Deli concept is to open at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire. It is scheduled to launch in time for the reopening of Hatfield House at the end of this month. The opening is in partnership with the Levy Leisure UK group.
Canadian coffeeshop brand Tim Hortons opens on Oxford Road in Manchester on Saturday (17 March). It already has sites on New Bury Road in Manchester, and in Sale, Altrincham and Bury.
Marco Pierre White’s Black and White Hospitality group is opening a branch of his Mr White’s English Chophouse brand at the Velvet Hotel in Manchester. The brand launched in Whitechapel in London recently.
Another Canada-based coffeeshop concept, Second Cup, has just opened under franchise in Southampton. The brand has nine other branches in the UK.
Yard Sale Pizza has launched a restaurant on Leytonstone High Road—its fourth in London. The brand launched in Clapton in 2014, and has since added sites in Finsbury Park and Walthamstow.
Bonny Gull’s Salt n Sauce concept, which operated as a pop-up in London last year, is opening a permanent site at the Westgate Oxford centre. It is a modern take on a fish and chips shop.
Oakman Inns has just opened a pub and restaurant under its Beech House format in Amersham in Buckinghamshire. The 140-cover site is the fourth Beech House for Oakman, joining venues in Beaconsfield, St Albans and Solihull.
A new all-day Caribbean restaurant concept called Baygo has opened on Eastcheap in the City.
US-based doughnut brand Krispy Kreme is to move into Ireland with a site at the Blanchardstown Shopping Centre in Dublin later this year.
Burmese restaurant concept Lahpet, which has operated as a pop-up venture in Hackney, is opening a permanent restaurant on Bethnal Green Road in Shoreditch. It should launch on 6 April. Lahpet also sells food at Old Spitalfields Market.
Papa John’s has just opened in Weston-super-Mare—the eighth site for the brand’s local franchisees.
Pret will open its first store in the Netherlands on Monday (19 March), under a partnership with HMS Host International in Utrecht.
