The group has confirmed that it will be launching a restaurant in the popular tourist area, but is holding out to see how trading continues into September across its other two London sites before announcing an opening date.
Last October the company submitted plans to Westminster City Council to merge the buildings of 29-30 Maiden Lane and 15 Henrietta Street in Covent Garden to create a ‘high quality destination’ restaurant. The planning application said merging the buildings would create a 227-cover restaurant split over two floors with an ancillary bar at ground and basement level.
The move reaffirms the casual restaurant group's confidence in the capital's restaurant market despite saying earlier in the year that it was considering rowing back on its UK expansion plans.
Back in May, co-founder Victor Lugger told BigHospitality that the group was thinking about potentially freezing its UK expansion plans, saying the Government’s poor track record during the Coronavirus crisis had led to greater uncertainty over how it will handle Brexit.
He said that while the impact of the pandemic hadn't stopped the group from thinking about expanding its operations further, it had led to a rethink about where the group would focus those efforts in the short-term.
“We entered this crisis as a strong company, and that has not changed,” he said. “However, the way the Government has handled the [Coronavirus] crisis in the UK has put us off pushing forward with further development in the UK until we know more about Brexit.”
As well as the Covent Garden site, it has also previously been reported that the group was exploring the idea of opening a food market in the capital.
Big Mamma, which was founded in Paris by restaurateurs Tigrane Seydoux and Victor Lugger and operates several trattorias across France, currently has two sites in London: Gloria in Shoreditch, and Circolo Popolare in Fitzrovia - both of which opened last year.
