Friday five: the week's top restaurant stories
- Azzurri Group is to bring California-based fast casual concept Dave’s Hot Chicken to the UK with a view to opening 60 sites under the brand beginning in London next year. Dave’s Hot Chicken, which specialises in hand-breaded chicken that’s spiced to order and counts actor Samuel L. Jackson and singer Usher among its backers, will debut in the capital in Q1 of 2025. “We know there is an opportunity to make Dave’s Hot Chicken one of the iconic restaurant brands, and we do that by partnering with incredible operators, like Azzurri Group,” says Bill Phelps, CEO of Dave’s Hot Chicken.
- Indian street food group Bundobust has announced it will close its Birmingham restaurant later this month. The restaurant, which is housed in a Grade II listed building on Bennetts Hill, is split across two floors and will close on 14 July. Announcing the closure, the group says: "This is our 10th year as Bundobust and we've had some incredible milestone moments as our small group. Unfortunately, we've also reached a less pleasant milestone, one that we hoped we'd never have to do. We have taken the difficult decision to close Bundobust Birmingham. Birmingham was the furthest from home we’ve ever ventured, but in visiting places like Digbeth, Moseley, Jewellery Quarter, and King’s Heath we recognised many parallels with the people and hospitality community here to the cities already operate in, which made Birmingham feel like a home away from home."
- Pizza Express is looking to grow its presence in the retail space with the opening a new concept within Tesco stores. The casual dining group’s website has open vacancies for a ‘Pizza Express Pod’ at the Tesco Extra store in Bursledon, Southampton. Describing it as an ‘exciting new concept’, the restaurant group has posted vacancies for a site manager, supervisor and team member. It is understood the concept will be a smaller format, food-to-go type offering compared to a typical full-service Pizza Express restaurant.
- Former Bouchon Racine chef Jakob Grant has opened his first solo restaurant venture, a bistro located upstairs at The Bohemian public house on the seafront in Deal, Kent. Called Cherub’s, a reference to Grant’s recently-born son, the restaurant holds 27 covers and serves a weekly-changing menu of ‘ingredient led’ dishes often made using surplus stock from local suppliers including The Black Pig, Jenkins & Son, and Lavender and Blackberry. Example dishes to feature on the restaurant’s launch menu include clams, chorizo and butter beans; lobster with Café de Paris butter and chips; roast chicken, girolles, asparagus and Madeira sauce; and St Emilion au chocolat.
- Patrick Powell has announced his departure from London restaurants The Midland Grand Dining Room and Allegra. Following a seven-year partnership with developer and hotelier Harry Handelsman, owner of St Pancras Renaissance Hotel and The Stratford, the duo are parting ways in order for Powell to focus on opportunities more aligned to his long-term culinary vision. Powell has already completed his final service at The Midland Grand Dining Room, where head chef Charlie Crote is now leading the kitchen team. He will remain at Allegra until his last service there on 14 July. "To have had the opportunity to open restaurants in not one, but two of London's most iconic buildings has been a privilege and I am incredibly proud of what we have achieved, none of which would have been possible without the hard work of my brilliant front and back of house teams, both past and present," says Powell. "Thank you to all of them as well as all of the guests over the years, many of whom have not only become regulars, but friends too. However, the time has come for me to move on and I am hugely excited for the future and my next chapter."
For more of this week's headlines, click here.
