Rose Street Falafel is billed as a homage to the group’s roots in the Marais District of Paris, which is famous for its casual Middle Eastern cuisine.
“The original idea for Maray was a falafel cafe upstairs and a bar downstairs,” says Maray co-founder James Bates. “Long story short, we ended up opening a restaurant but doing something more casual is a scratch we’ve always wanted to itch.”
“It will also allow us to diversify. We went into the pandemic with three restaurants so all our eggs were in one basket. It felt quite risky.”
Boxpark is expected to announce the full line up of traders for its Liverpool site later this month.
Spanning 21,000sq ft and holding 400 internal covers plus 200 external covers, Boxpark Liverpool will include eight kitchen units, three internal bars with additional external bars. There will also be a 5,430sq ft garden.
It will be the first Boxpark-branded development outside of the capital, joining its Shoreditch, Croydon and Wembley locations.
Maray was founded in 2014 by Bates and Thomas White in Liverpool and now operates a further site in Liverpool and a site in site in Manchester.
The group offers Middle Eastern-inspired sharing plates including the likes of Disco Cauliflower with chermoula, harissa, yoghurt, tahini, pomegranate, parsley, almonds; Lamb Kofta with labneh, rhubarb, confit garlic; and Baklava Cheesecake with orange butterscotch, rose, pistachio.
Late last year, it was announced that Maray's parent company QVO Hospitality had entered into an operating partnership with Jonathan and Miles Falkingham to take over the management of Liverpool restaurant Buyers Club.
Bates was speaking at Restaurant's R200 Conference in Manchester. For more information, click here.
