Italian restaurant chain Polpo is expected to close sites and enter a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA). The once-pioneering Venetian brand, which was founded in a torrent of social media excitement by Russell Norman and Richard Beatty in 2009, owes HMRC £550,000, according to a letter sent to creditors and which was first reported by Propel […]
Restaurateur Ray de Fazio is to open a new Italian restaurant in Wimbledon village. Cent Anni will launch in March as a 100-cover site cooking for lunch and dinner. The restaurant will serve “modern and classic” food, which will sit alongside a wine list focused on Italian vintages. Cent Anni will offer a set lunch […]
Stevie Parle is soon to open a second Pastaio in Canary Wharf. The new restaurant will launch on November 26 in a space formerly occupied by Pocho. The second Pastaio will serve much the same as the Soho site, with plenty of deep-fried ‘nduja and mozzarella, pasta plates and Italian sausage. Whether the queues will […]
Tonkotsu isn’t the only restaurant about to open in Ealing. Dicken’s Yard is hot property, and while it might not be a Market Halls in Victoria or a Bloomberg Arcade, it’s still attracting names. Simone Remoli, chef and founder of Pasta Remoli, will be opening a new restaurant in Ealing on November 23, bringing his […]
Polpetto, Russel Norman’s “expressive and experimental” sister restaurant to Polpo, has relaunched with a new head chef. Anthea Stephenson has joined the Soho restaurant having honed her skills at the River Cafe, The Jugged Hare and Sketch, and has devised an entirely new menu designed for sharing and feasting. The chef has also brought with […]
Heinz Beck, the man behind three Michelin-starred sensation La Pergola in Rome, brings some of his Italian flair to that quintessentially British London landmark, Brown’s Hotel in Mayfair. Beck at Brown’s promises a much more casual (and affordable) offering with a menu of classic Italian dishes using seasonal, British ingredients devised by Beck and his […]
Later this month, Italian luxury lifestyle brand Chucs will open a fourth “cozy and calm” London café at the Serpentine Sackler Gallery in the middle of Hyde Park. The Mayfair original, adjoining a Chucs store in Dover Street, opened in 2015, followed by a restaurant at the brand’s Chelsea shop and an outpost in Harrods in 2016 and 2017 […]
London’s appetite for fresh pasta specialists remains undimmed (Pastaio, Padella, Pastifico all spring to mind). Joining their ranks is this Covent Garden-fringe venture from William Ellner (of Joanna’s in Crystal Palace) and David Ramsey with ex-Locanda Locatelli chef Louis Korovilas in the kitchen whipping up the likes of pappardelle with kid goat and rosemary ragù. […]
Jacob Kenedy’s Soho favourite Bocca di Lupo has announced the appointment of a chef de cuisine who will work alongside the chef-patron. Angelo Albera will oversee the “energetic” open kitchen, and hopefully retain Kenedy’s flair for “unexpected, distinctive regional dishes”. Born in Casale Monferrato, Angelo has just finished a three year stint as head chef at […]
Just over a year after launching their Vine Street restaurant in Brighton, Cin Cin has opened a second site in Hove’s Western Road. The original venue was hailed in this year’s Harden’s Best UK Restaurants as providing “simple and delicious rustic food” that’s a “very welcome change from the pile-it- high and sell-it-cheap pizza and pasta joints which […]