The Thai Leisure Group’s first Thaikhun Street Bar has just opened at Liverpool ONE. It has Thai-themed cocktails, plus frozen alcoholic slushies and ice-cream smoothies, as well as Thai bar snacks and bowls. It will also have entertainment including live music and games. Founder Kim Kaewraikhot said: “Thaikhun Street Bar is the first of its kind in the UK and we are so excited to bring a touch of Thailand to the cocktail scene to Liverpool.” Alison Clegg, director of asset management at Grosvenor Europe, said: “The Thaikhun Street Bar concept looks incredible and the thought and attention to detail behind the design, creates an immersive experience for our visitors.”
Loungers has secured permission to open a branch of its Cosy Club bar and restaurant concept on the Grade II-listed site of an old bank in Norwich. It will open sometime next year. Loungers has also announced plans to move its Ocho Lounge in Penarth to a new space on the same road, having acquired a unit previously occupied by Prezzo.
TV chef Gino d’Acampo’s My Restaurant will open at the Springs shopping centre on Thorpe Park in Leeds next Friday (26 October). It will be a 150-cover operation with a coffee and deli bar, prosecco counter, games room and outdoor terrace.
Nando’s is recruiting for a new restaurant opening in Ely in Cambridgeshire, local media report.
TGI Friday’s will open a new restaurant in the Intu shopping centre in Watford on 10 December. It will be a second site in the town for the brand and will have a bar and open kitchen. TGI has also just acquired a site at the Middlebrook retail park in Horwich near Bolton.
Cattivo, a new Italian bar and cocktail bar concept from the team behind Martello Hall and Canova Hall, opened on Ferndale Road in Brixton on Tuesday (16 October). It has a ground-floor restaurant featuring small and sharing plates and a basement bar with classic and modern cocktails, plus a regular programme of entertainment.
BrewDog will open its first Ireland pub in Dublin by June 2019, it has said in an online ‘blueprint’ for future openings. The company has meanwhile just launched in Canary Wharf—its 70th bar in all. BrewDog’s blueprint says it will also launch in Edinburgh airport, Aberdeen, Perth, Dalston, Brixton and Budapest before the end of 2018, and in Carlisle, Peterhead, St Gallen, Tampere, Inverurie, Manchester, Hull and Paris in the first half of 2019.
Wright & Bell, the bar and restaurant group backed by the Imbiba Partnership, launches its third site by Smithfield market on 9 November. It will be called Lino. Wright & Bell also runs the Kitty Hawk and Back Room on South Place.
Turtle Bay has signed to open at the Cathedral Lanes shopping centre in Coventry early next year. The Botanist and Steakout have also agreed terms for units there.
Darwin & Wallace has set 10 November for the opening of its seventh site, No 17 Dickens Yard in Ealing.
Philippines fast-food brand Jollibee has opened its first UK restaurant in Earls Court, having taken over a Wagamama unit. The company has told the Telegraph that it wants to open 25 sites across the UK over the next five years.
Taiwanese steamed buns brand BAO will open its third restaurant in Borough next year. It already has sites in Fitzrovia and Soho, plus a bar on Netil Market.
Whitbread has secured permission for a new Bar + Block restaurant in Finsbury Park. It will be located alongside a Premier Inn hotel on Seven Sisters Road. The opening is targeted for early 2020.
Organic café and farm shop brand Daylesford has opened its fourth London site in Brompton Cross. The three-floor unit has 80 covers. Daylesford also operates in Notting Hill, Pimlico and Marylebone.
Turkish restaurant group Efes has acquired a site on Maple Street in Fitzrovia—its sixth location and a first in central London. Efes also operates in Canning Town, Dartford, Whitechapel, Mile End and Commercial Road.
Shaftesbury has unveiled the first two restaurants to have signed to Central Cross, a mixed-use development at the gateway to Chinatown London. They are Sichuanese restaurant JinLi and casual noodle and dining concept Modern Shanghai. It is a second site for JinLi, which operates on Leicester Street. Both restaurants will open over the winter. Julia Wilkinson, head of group restaurant strategy at Shaftesbury, said: “JinLi Chinatown and Modern Shanghai are both creative new concepts from existing Chinatown operators that perfectly reflect our strategy to introduce new flavours to Chinatown London, offering the very best Chinese and East Asian cuisine in the capital.”
