Friday five: the week's top news
Alan Yau is to open three new restaurants in London next year, including two at the Wardian London development in Canary Wharf. Both restaurants will offer ‘Asian gastronomy with a twist’, with the larger of the two combining Cantonese and modern European cooking. The third restaurant will be a new location for Yau’s Turkish street food brand Yamabahçe.
The World’s 50 Best Bars has announced the bars ranked 51st-100th this year, ahead of its annual awards ceremony on 3 October. Alex Kratena and Monica Berg’s Shoreditch-based Tayēr + Elementary (opened in partnership with TÁ TÁ Eatery founders and katsu sando pioneers Ana Gonçalves and Zijun Meng) is the longlist’s highest new entry in 52nd position.
The UK restaurant market is set to contract -3.1% to £18.8bn in 2019, its fastest decline in seven years according to exclusive research from MCA Insight. MCA’s UK Restaurant Market Report 2019 indicates that large falls in the sales value and outlet volumes of independent restaurants is the cause of the overall decline of the UK restaurant market.
Following a trial period, James Brown and Alex Moore’s tip solutions business TiPJAR has begun rolling out to restaurants beginning with Honest Burgers. The pair tell BigHospitality they have already lined up Red’s True Barbecue to take on the system next, and are beginning to think about exploring other ideas with an aim to eventually offering a suite of tipping solutions.
Jason Atherton has been named Chef’s Chef at the 2019 AA Hospitality Awards. The restaurateur took the title, which is voted for by his industry peers, at a ceremony at Grosvenor House, London earlier this week (24 September). To read our interview with Atherton and chef Paul Walsh talking about their new restaurant, The Betterment, click here.
For more of this week’s news, see below or click here.
