REX: The Great British Cafe aims to reinvent the concept of the British café to create bright, all-day dining venues offering simple, freshly prepared food.
Like the successful South West-based Loungers group, Mark Ashley – whose CV includes head of hospitality for Marks & Spencer and chief operating officer for Virgin Active – plans to target the suburbs of large cities and towns, and is not looking at central sites for the time being.
“It’s a market that is often ignored,” he said. “We’re looking to attract a diverse range of customers and establish REX as a quality local amenity.”
The first site – in Muswell Hill, north London – opened late last month. Ashley plans to open several more in north London before heading to south London and, eventually, the rest of the UK.
Potential to grow
The sites will be funded by a network of private backers, and Ashley thinks the REX brand has the potential to grow to 50 sites.
Le Gavroche alumni Christian Delteil – who used to run Bank Aldwych – is a consultant. He’s developed an all-day menu centred on high quality British ingredients.
Ashley said: “The menu is designed to appeal to different people with different needs at different times. Breakfast for some is a cappuccino, for others it’s a full English.
“For lunch and dinner, we’ll do a decent range of hot food such as home-made steak and kidney pies, salads or maybe a spiced duck
breast – and we’ll offer tea and cakes in the afternoon.”