Friday five: the week's top restaurant stories

- Restaurants across the country were forced to close early on Wednesday night (7 August) ​​amid fears of a resumption in far-right rioting and violence​ - though the disorder did not materialise. In Brighton, one of some 40 locations that had been earmarked as a target for right-wing agitators, several businesses were reported to have been boarded up. They included The Royal Standard pub, Halisco, The Chicken Shop, Café Coho and Albion Kebabs. Businesses across Kent towns Canterbury, Dover and Medway were reported to have closed earlier amid fears of the worst night of violence yet, while in the North East, Middlesbrough, already the scene of violence last week, was descried as like a 'ghost town' on Wednesday afternoon. Shaheen’s Indian Restaurant in Durham also closed after 'far right flyers' were given out locally. While there was no property damage reported, many business will have lost much of a day’s trade due to the perceieved threat. Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) national chairman Martin McTague said small businesses have found themselves 'on the front line' of recent public disorder and violence. Trade body UKHospitality has published a support hub for businesses and staff affected by the riots​​ and disorder over the past week.

- James Cochran will close his Islington restaurant 12:51 later this month​​ after nearly seven years. Posting on Instagram, the former The Ledbury and The Harwood Arms chef didn’t give a reason for the closure, saying that he had decided it was ‘an end of a chapter for me’. “I opened 12:51, fresh off my win on Great British Menu, looking to share my ethos that anyone could enjoy fine dining and classical cooking techniques without the stuffiness. Seeing that realised has been a dream,” the post reads. “We have had countless guests come through our doors, and it has been an honour to serve every one of them, as well as work alongside all the staff members who have made 12:51 possible over the years. To all of you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

- Lemon Pepper Holdings, the master franchisee for Wingstop UK, has hired Goldman Sachs to explore a sale of the business after six years of rapid growth​​. City sources told Sky News​ that the chicken-focused QSR brand, which was named as the fastest growing restaurant group in the UK by The Sunday Times​ 100 for the second year in a row back in June, initiated a sale process in response to unsolicited expressions of interest from potential buyers. Goldman is understood to have begun issuing information about Wingstop UK to third parties in the last couple of weeks.

- Hostmore is to transition to an ‘asset light’ fully franchised model with no corporate stores following its acquisition of TGI Fridays in the US​​. The group, which owns the TGI Fridays UK franchise, said the new combined business intends to sell all its corporate stores to existing or new franchisees, who will then operate the stores and pay a royalty. Hostmore currently has 87 corporate sites, while TGI Fridays has 92 existing corporate restaurants. This transition has already commenced, with TGI Fridays having entered into agreements to sell a substantial portion of its corporate stores for in excess of $40m. Hostmore is still working to reach binding terms regarding the proposed all-share reverse takeover of TGI Fridays for a value of £177m, which was announced back in April.

- London-based Indian restaurant group Kricket has acquired a site in Shoreditch for the opening of its fifth outpost​​. The group, which is led by Rik Campbell and Will Bowlby, has taken on the former Apothecary East site on Charlotte Road, just of Great Eastern Street. The new restaurant will follow hot on the heels of Kricket’s fourth restaurant, which has opened this month in Canary Wharf and marked the group’s first new restaurant opening since 2018. The Shoreditch site, which was also once home to Merchant’s Tavern, Angela Hartnett's French, Spanish and Italian restaurant, presents a new opportunity for the modern Indian restaurant group, which intends to run it as an all-day venue for the first time, including serving breakfast.

For more of this week's headlines, click here​​.