Friday five: the week's top restaurant stories
- James Robson, Will Murray and Jack Croft have confirmed that a follow up to their hit West End restaurant Fallow will soon launch in Canary Wharf. Named after a native deer of the British Isles, Roe will seat a total of 350 covers and is set to follow the same ‘nose-to-tail and root-to-stem ethos’ as its sister restaurant and the trio's more recently launched 'chicken shop' FOWL. The 'extensive' a la carte menu will be divided into nibbles and flatbreads, skewers and grilled options, with larger plates and sides also available. As well as championing 'modest' British ingredients, Roe’s dishes will showcase underused and underappreciated produce. Rare breed meats and fish from the British Isles are central to the menu, as well as regenerative crops like Wildfarmed native grain.
- BrewDog has dropped its commitment to the Real Living Wage as it looks to cut costs amid ongoing losses. The brewer and bar group, which operates more than 70 sites across the UK, has told staff it will begin using the Government-mandated National Living Wage (NLW) to set pay for its bar crews, rather than the voluntary Real Living Wage, which is calculated by the Living Wage Foundation. As a result, all new employees from this month will be hired on the current NLW of £10.42, rising to £11.44 in April in line with the increases announced by the Government in November last year. Hourly pay for current London staff will be frozen at its current rate of £11.95, while those outside of London will see their pay increase from £10.90 to £11.44 in April. Had BrewDog remained committed to the Real Living Wage, it would have been required to raise its staff’s hourly wage to £13.15 in London and £12 outside of London from April.
- Peter Sanchez-Iglesias says he wants to bring his flagship Casamia back following its closure in 2022. Posting on Instagram, the high-profile Bristol and London-based chef wrote: “Casamia will reopen again. Unfinished business. If you know of any development/projects where a gastronomic restaurant could live, please DM me.” Talking to Restaurant, Sanchez-Iglesias explained that he missed focusing on a single, high-reaching kitchen. “I just want to be back in Casamia cooking. Since we relaunched the restaurant in 2016 my focus has been taken off that restaurant because we were always working on new projects, including Paco Tapas, Pi Shop and Decimo. I was never really able to cook there. This is about a return to the kitchen for me. If I don't do it now I'll never do it. I'm 38 years old. I want to get out of my comfort zone again.”
- Wahaca is returning to the expansion trail withits first new opening in six years. The Mexican restaurant group will launch a 150-cover site at the Paddington Square development in London this April. Led by GM Rafael De Lima and head chef Mirko Emanuele, the new restaurant will serve a menu of Mexican-inspired small plates including tacos, taquitos to quesadillas, with more than 50% of the dishes being meat-free. In line with the group’s commitment to ‘planet-conscious dining’, the Paddington restaurant will be designed with ‘sustainability in mind’ and is set to feature an all-green energy, electric-only kitchen.
- Paulo De Tarso has left his role of head of hospitality at Mayfair-based restaurant operator LSL Capital after three months. A well-known front-of-house figure within London hospitality, De Tarso started working at the group’s Japanese restaurant KOYN and had been due to ‘embark on a journey’ across its other sites, which include Jamavar, MiMi Mei Fair and Socca, as part of the newly-created role. De Tarso says he is ‘refocusing his attention’ on a digital media-related passion project, which is expected to launch later this year.
For more of this week's headlines, click here.
