Gluten-free pasta concept to pop-up in former Stem site
BigHospitality's sister site MCA reports that Pasta Plant will be a pop-up resident at the Princess Street venue, next to Lewis Hamilton’s Neat Burger, until around March while landlord the Crown Estate seeks a permanent tenant.
The protein-based fast casual concept is from Daniele Siro Brigiano, a former group operations director at Brindisa, and also formerly of Individual Restaurants, Cau, and Gordon Ramsay.
He previously operated Pasta Plant at WeWork locations in London, with the Mayfair pop-up seen a springboard to a permanent site in the city.
The pop-up is the second in a partnership between restaurant consultancy Montana Fogg, property agency Distrkt, and the Crown Estate, which aims to occupy empty units with inspired restaurant residencies.
The first was Chris Leach and David Carter’s 10 Heddon Street, on the former Magpie site, which has led to a permanent site in Soho for the Italian inspired concept.
This space has since been taken over by Shaun Presland’s Pacific, as part of a rotating residency at the site.
Distrkt’s Camilla Topham has previously told MCA and Restaurant magazine’s Generation Next event that London landlords are becoming increasingly anxious about signing restaurants up for long leases following several high-profile closures.
This has led to the launch of short-term projects such as 10 Heddon Street. She said: “The negative PR of letting a site as a permanent restaurant and having it fail has a big impact. They’d almost rather not re-let that property and leave the site vacant."
