Friday Five: the week's top news
- Andrew Pern’s award-winning gastropub the Star at Harome is expected to reopen in late autumn following a fire at the property late last year. The North Yorkshire gastropub was ‘reduced to ashes’ in November after its thatched roof caught alight, with the blaze spreading through the 14th century building. Writing on Twitter, Pern announced that construction company Woodhouse-Barry had been appointed to rebuild the property, with work die to start in the nest week or so. He said that the businesses was getting ready for a late Autumn reopening, adding: “thank you to everyone for their continued support! See you all soon.”
- The Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards has announced a new award for the 2022 ceremony. The Food Lovers Award has been created to give restaurant goers across the UK the chance to participate in the awards by having their say on the best places to eat out in the UK. People will be asked to vote for their top three restaurants in the UK weighted in order of preference. The results will then be compiled with a shortlist of the top voted restaurants created, which will then be promoted across the National Restaurant Awards channels. The Winner will be announced at the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards on 13 June at The Hurlingham Club.
- The number of restaurant businesses going out of business soared by 41% in the past 12 months, new data shows. More than 1,300 restaurants in Britain became insolvent in the 12 months to 31 March 2022, a 4% rise on the previous 12 months when 926 restaurant businesses went into insolvency, according to accountancy firm Price Bailey. The number of restaurant sector insolvencies in Q1 2022 (378) is at the highest level since Q4 2019 (386) with an average 3.6 restaurant businesses going bust per day, up from 2.5 per day in 2020/21. The rise is the number of restaurant businesses closing is attributed to the expiry of support for businesses hit by Covid-19 restrictions. Price Bailey says that the restaurant sector is facing a ‘perfect storm’ of adverse trading conditions, which are proving particularly challenging for the mid-range casual dining market.
- Famed Taiwanese restaurant chain Din Tai Fung is finally set to launch a restaurant at London's Centre Point development, more than three years later than originally planned. Eater London reports that the group, which currently has two sites in the capital is famed for its xiao long bao, has confirmed it will open the restaurant 'in the second half of 2022', having exchanged licenses on the huge 16,000 sq ft space previously occupied by British brasserie Vivi. Din Tai Fung, which operates more than 170 locations in 13 countries around the world, first announced its intention to open a restaurant at Centre Point back in the summer of 2018, but that initial plan was eventually abandoned. The group, whose UK rollout is part of a joint venture with the Singapore-based food and beverage company BreadTalk Group, launched its first UK restaurant in Covent Garden in late 2018, and eventually followed it with a second site within Oxford Street department store Selfridge's that opened earlier this year.
- BrewDog will give 750 members of its staff shares worth £120,000 as well as share half of its bar profits with all bar workers under a new employee ownership programme. Co-founder James Watt says he will give away 3.7 million shares in the company that will be distributed evenly among all salaried team members, amounting to 5% of the company. Team members will receive approximately £30,000 a year in shares over the next four years, based on the company's recent valuation of £1.8bn, with the first award of shares due in June 2022. The value will be worth around £120,000 per person over the next four years, but it could be 'considerably more' if BrewDog 'continues to grow strongly and reach its goals as a business'.
