Viva Brazil closes Birmingham restaurant

Brazilian steakhouse group Viva Brazil has closed its Birmingham site just five months after the company was bought out of administration.

It follows a difficult few years for the group, which closed its restaurants in Aberdeen in 2015 and Newcastle in 2016 both less than two years after opening.

Viva Brazil offers meat carved by waiting staff at the table as well as a ‘Salad Island’ with cold meats, breads and hot Brazilian dishes.

The company, which launched in Liverpool in 2010, entered administration in February this year but was bought back by its founder Andy Aldrich.

The Birmingham site opened in 2016 with the backing of a £900k loan from Santander bank and was intended as the brand’s flagship restaurant.

Aldrich said at the time that Viva Brazil was continuing to move from 'strength to strength' and was looking at further expansion.

But a statement on the company’s Birmingham website now says: “Apologies but Viva Brazil Birmingham is no longer open.”

Aldrich told The Birmingham Mail that all staff had been given the opportunity to transfer to Viva Brazil’s other remaining sites, though these are in Liverpool, Glasgow and Cardiff.