Mike Palmer told MCA he was looking for a 50 cover site in Brighton for the new concept, which will be inspired by Northern Thai cuisine and see dishes cooked over charcoal.
The new concept will be part of Palmer’s newly created hospitality group Kemptown Project, and is said to be in a similar vein to Ben Chapman’s Thai grill concept Smoking Goat.
Palmer, a former Mitchells & Butlers executive, who also consulted on Flat Iron and John Salt, says he has chefs currently out in Bangkok working in kitchens in preparation for
Lucky Khao, which will also be overseen by business partner and Pike & Pine chef patron Matt Gillan, the Michelin Star-winning former head chef of The Pass at the South Lodge Hotel in West
Sussex.
“We want to open more restaurants and cafes under Kemptown Project, and we are currently looking for sites for a Thai BBQ offer," says Palmer. "Matt will help with food techniques and flavours, though he won’t be cooking. It will be part of a wider project.”
Meanwhile, Palmer said he was considering an opportunity to take his sustainable burger concept Lucky Beach, which has one site, and a concession at
Indigo Pubs’ Temple Bar, to Deliveroo Editions’ Hove site.
“Lucky Beach is going really well at Temple Bar, the offer is well-received in Brighton, and Deliveroo has become quite a sizeable part of our business. We’re discussing whether to go into the Editions site in Hove. It would be quite easy for us to scale it out a bit and make it more accessible in Brighton in Hove.”
Palmer also said he had recently looked at a site in Covent Garden for Redroaster, the upmarket café concept and coffee roaster that he acquired and relaunched with Gillan, but had turned it down. He said the appetite for multiples in Brighton was problematic, and doubted whether the city had space for several Redroaster cafes, though said there could be avenues for variations on the format.
Palmer said Pike & Pine, the fine dining evening restaurant that operates from the same site as Redroaster, had been a challenge to get going, and that the team had moved to an a la carte offering, as well as tasting menus.
On the roasting side, he said Redroaster had upped its wholesale business following its rebrand, and was now being sold in Selfridges.
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