Friday five: The week's top hospitality stories
- Prime Minister Liz Truss is to launch a major review into Britain’s visa systems in a bid to try and alleviate the acute labour shortages in industries such as hospitality. Truss is set to make changes to the shortage occupation list, which would allow certain industries to recruit more staff from overseas, according to the Financial Times. The review could also endorse a loosening of the requirement to speak English, in some sectors. Truss is also set to lift the cap on foreign labourers working in British seasonal agriculture, which had been set at 38,000.
- High-profile Birmingham-based chef restaurateur Aktar Islam will close his Argentine-inspired steak restaurant Pulperia at the end of the month. The chef - who is best known for his Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Opheem - said that the current climate, paired with ‘the post Brexit and Covid situation’ has made operating the Brindley Place at a high standard unviable, without charging customers more. Islam retains the site for the moment and plans to ‘monitor the next coming months and consider options regarding the location and introducing another concept’. Pulperia opened in 2020 and was well-received in the city attracting a rave review with The Sunday Times critic Marina O’Loughlin.
- Ikoyi founders Jeremy Chan and Iré Hassan-Odukale have confirmed they will move their highly rated restaurant from St James’ Market to 180 The Strand later this year. Ikoyi’s final service within its original site will take place on 26 October with bookings for the new restaurant set to go live on 15 October. Billed as a ‘home to London’s creative industries’ 180 The Strand incorporates exhibitions, events spaces, restaurants, a health club and co-working spaces. In a short statement issued to announce the relocation, the pair said that the new and - presumably - much larger space will allow the team to “fully express our interpretation of seasonality through bold heat and intensify the techniques we have worked on for the past five years”.
- Alyn Williams has been named as executive chef of Park Row, the DC Comic inspired Soho restaurant. Williams, who replaces former executive chef Kim Woodward, will oversee the menu at the Batman-inspired venue’s dining rooms and bars, which include The Iceberg Lounge, Pennyworth’s and Rogues Gallery. He joins the kitchen alongside Karl O’Dell, executive chef at The Monarch Theatre, a 20-seat immersive dining experience set within Park Row. Williams was formerly head chef at his eponymous Michelin-starred restaurant at The Westbury Hotel in Mayfair, where he worked for eight years.
- Chef Alex Bond has smashed his £100,000 crowdfund target to support the launch of his new fried chicken restaurant, Mollis, in little more than a week. Bond, the chef-patron at the Michelin starred Alchemilla in Nottingham, launched the crowdfund on Indiegogo on 17 September with an aim of raising the money within 14 days, but this week he confirmed that the campaign had hit its target. At the time of writing, Bond had raised £110,525 from 464 backers, with six days left for the crowdfund to run. The money raised will be used to realise Bond’s ambitions of opening Mollis, which will serve fried chicken, soft serve ice cream using foraged ingredients and cocktails, accompanied by a soundtrack of hip hop, rap and garage.
