Friday Five: the week's top news

- Gordon Ramsay Group has acquired the Pizza East brand as well as the group’s flagship restaurant in London’s Shoreditch,​​ which it is set to reopen in the coming months. Sources close to the deal confirmed the acquisition to BigHospitality, which will see the brand leave the Soho House stable after 14 years. Pizza East closed its restaurant housed within The Tea Building in Shoreditch last month, having already permanently shuttered its only other site, in Notting Hill, back in December. At the time, a representative from Soho House insisted that the Shoreditch closure was only ‘temporary’, but failed to offer any sort of timeframe as to when it expected the restaurant to reopen. BigHospitality understands that Pizza East will reopen with a ‘refreshed’ menu developed by the Gordon Ramsay Group and be positioned as a more elevated counterpoint to Gordon Ramsay’s Street Pizza. 

- The team behind Hackney pub The Marksman will open a restaurant at the National Theatre this May.​​ Launching in partnership with KERB, Lasdun is described as a ‘timeless brasserie’ serving seasonal, locally sourced ingredients, ‘showcasing the very best produce Britain has to offer’. The 90-cover restaurant will be located on the site of the former House Restaurant at the theatre and will have a marble oyster counter, central bar seating and formal table dining as well as a private dining room. The restaurant is being opened by The Marksman’s founders Jon Rotheram and Tom Harris along with John Ogier, co-founder of Shoreditch restaurant Lyle’s. Lasdun will be the first venture from the trio.

- Honest Burgers is looking to scrap paid breaks for staff, which it introduced during the pandemic.​​ The Active Partners-backed business has said that their introduction was ‘frankly a mistake’ and it could no longer afford the £600,000 a year cost to the business, the Evening Standard reports. In an internal briefing, seen by the Standard, the company told shop-floor workers that it wanted to make breaks unpaid, but would increase hourly pay as compensation. Under the new terms, a waiter or chef at Honest would be paid £10.45 an hour; a shift manager would see an hourly increase of 70p to £12.20 per hour; and head chefs and sous chefs would see their pay increased by £1 per hour to £15 and £13 respectively. The company said it believed the change was being ‘broadly well received’. However, some workers at the chain have called the change ‘an insult’ and claim it would leave them worse off.

- Sandwich giant Subway has confirmed it is exploring a possible sale.​​ A deal could value the chain at more than $10bn (£8.2bn), according to an article last month from The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the company had hired advisors to explore a sale. Subway confirmed that JPMorgan is advising the Connecticut-based company and will conduct the sale exploration process. Subway, which has over 37,000 restaurants in more than 100 countries, said earlier this month its same-store sales climbed 9.2% last year. It is not required to disclose its financial results as it is privately owned, but has recently shared sales updates as it undergoes a turnaround effort. The company has reported eight consecutive quarters of sales growth, it said in a release earlier this month. Digital sales have more than tripled since 2019. The improvements mark a stark reversal after years of sales declines. As of December 2021, Subway had around 2,300 sites in the UK & Ireland. Company sales in the territory decreased to £42.9m in 2021, with a total loss of £738,690.

- The Royal Household footman Jupiter Humphrey-Bishop has won the Gold Service Scholarship.​​ It is the first time the high profile front of house competition has been won by a competitor from outside the hotel and restaurant industry. Charlotte Bailey, fine dining head waiter at Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, and Robin Tola, head waiter at Hélène Darroze at The Connaught, were recognised as Commended Winning Finalists. A total of eight young front of house professionals competed at Corinthia London on 15 January with the results announced last night (15 February) at Claridge’s.