Gennaro Contaldo, best-known as Jamie Oliver’s mentor, has opened his latest restaurant near Piccadilly Circus – at the mature age of 77. Named Bolo after his signature Bolognese ragu, the 32-seat trattoria in Air Street serves a tight menu that revolves around seven pasta dishes – including the ‘Jamie’ (mezze maniche with sausage, Calabrian chilli bolo & […]
The Hispanophile Hart Brothers have closed their Borough Market grill restaurant Parrillan and will replace it with a Spanish-style neighbourhood bar or ‘cerveceria’ called Los Primos, where guests can enjoy a beer and a bite to eat for less than a tenner. Ice-cold Estrella Galicia will be sold by the caña – a small glass holding […]
Polish chef Marek Dziedzic is to showcase the cooking of his home country at his new County Durham restaurant Biedronka, meaning ‘ladybird’, which launches this Thursday (1 October). Marek is already well-known in the area as head chef at Scandinavian-influenced restaurant Hjem in nearby Wall, which closed down at the end of last year having […]
Live-fire restaurant group Temper is swerving away from the barbecue grill with its latest opening, a wine bar in Marylebone with the delightful name Temper Tantrums. The new venture launches next Wednesday (30 September) in the former Be At One bar in Wimpole Street, just off Oxford Street, and is said to be inspired by […]
A friendship between two matriarchs living on different continents has culminated decades later in the opening of a restaurant in Chiswick inspired by the regional cuisine of north Mexico. Mirtala was launched earlier this summer by Indian-born husband-and-wife duo Rishad and Benaisha Mehta, and is named after a Mexican friend of Rishad’s grandmother, Aloo. The […]
A glamorous Italian-style grill room and bar launches next week in Manchester’s Grade II listed former city library and registrar’s office off Deansgate. GiGi Gusto Griglia has taken over and transformed the former premises of Gusto, with an open kitchen and a central cocktail bar, Bar Elegenza, and aims to capture the ‘glamour, energy and […]
A traditional City chophouse originally founded in 1757 reopens next week under a new guise and new ownership – but with its historic interior painstakingly restored. Simpson’s Tavern in Cornhill closed down four years ago following a dispute with its landlord. It is being relaunched by the team behind Cloth in Smithfield as Cloth Cornhill – and […]
The Netherwood Estate’s restaurant Sow in Worcestershire has closed down with the departure of Andrew Sheridan’s Open Restaurant Group (ORG) – which, in another move, has acquired Gary Usher’s Wreck Bistro in Liverpool. ORG ran Sow for a little over a year, taking over a notably attractive space (pictured) that has a checkered history – originally […]
A Parisian-style bistro opens next week in Covent Garden from the team behind Levan in Peckham Rye – with specials that include an hommage to Pierre Koffmann’s stuffed pig’s trotter (pictured), for which the great chef was famous long before Koffmann’s fries. Named Cassette, the new venture has taken over the former premises of Grind on […]
An ambitious Brazilian/Japanese restaurant opens in Newcastle’s Quayside next week, which its founders believe has the potential for national and international expansion. Nipo takes its name from the Nipo-Brasileiro community of São Paulo, said to the be the largest concentration of Japanese people outside Japan, and is the brainchild of the team behind Newcastle’s Rio […]
