Friday Five: the week's top news
- The Checkers restaurant in Montgomery, Wales, has asked to “hand back” its Michelin star ahead of a change in the direction of the business. The site is run by chef proprietor Stephane Borie, his partner Sarah Francis and her sister Kathryn Francis and has held a star since it opened in 2011.
- The brothers behind The Marram Grass in Anglesey will launch a restaurant in Liverpool in 2019. Ellis and Liam Barrie have secured a site in the city’s Albert Dock, with further details yet to be announced.
-Babaji Pide, the Turkish pide restaurant launched by Alan Yau in 2015 has closed. The restaurant’s website – despite still having an active bookings widget – states that the Soho restaurant is closed “due to a technical issue”. According to a sign posted on Babaji Pide’s door, the site has in fact been closed “by the official receiver”.
- Chef Adam Simmonds will head up the kitchen at Adam Handling’s forthcoming restaurant at Belmond Cadogan Hotel. The former executive chef of Danesfield House in Marlow-On Thames will be head chef of Adam Handling Chelsea, when the restaurant opens in December.
- Pioneering vegan restaurant CookDaily has now closed both of its BoxPark sites as it gears up to launch a bricks-and-mortar restaurant and media centre. Owner Chef King closed the business’s Croydon outpost last September, and its east London site closed on Sunday. The new restaurant, set to launch in January 2019, will act as the headquarters for King’s brand, and will allow his business to produce more podcasts, merchandise and a radio station
