Tragus to open new brasserie concept at Heathrow’s T2
The Blackstone-backed restaurant group has invested £1.2m for the opening of La Salle - a Parisian brasserie concept – in June 2014.
The 168-cover restaurant and bar will offer simple dishes made using a high-performance grill. The entire menu and kitchen specifications designed to deliver every dish, from order to table, within 15 minutes to meet the needs of busy travellers without compromising on quality.
Tragus’s managing director Peter Blake said: “We are delighted to be working with Heathrow once again to create La Salle and be a part of Terminal 2.
“We believe that we have something very special to offer here, which meets the needs of the modern traveller: a high level of service, in a great looking restaurant with fantastic food and drinks.”
Dominating the new dining space will be a circular feature bar, incorporating sports and news screens, as an alternative place for more casual dining.
Airside dining
La Salle is Tragus’s third unique concept created especially for Heathrow, having previously developed Huxleys for Terminal 5 and Oriel Brasserie for Terminal 3.
Blake, who previously worked as the chief operating officer of Whitbread’s restaurants division, joined Tragus as managing director in the summer, coming in to work alongside former Costa Coffee managing director and Tragus chief executive John Derkach at the company.
Earlier this year Derkach revealed details of the refurbishment of the ‘vast bulk’ of the 126-strong Café Rouge estate, which he hopes will make the French restaurant brand more contemporary.
Other brands within Tragus Group’s portfolio include Italian fast-casual chain Strada, all-day Italian trattoria Bella Italia and the Huxleys, Amalfi, Potters and Ortega brasserie concepts.
Heathrow's new Terminal 2 will open next year, on 4 June 2014, nearly sixty years after The Queen opened the original Terminal. The terminal is the next major step in the transformation of Heathrow, and will continue the progress the airport has made in recent years with the opening of Terminal 5 and the refurbishment of Terminals 1, 3 and 4. It is on schedule to be completed in November 2013 and there will then be six months of testing.
