Jazz saxophonist and entrepreneur YolanDa Brown is to open her restaurant and music venue Soul Mama in Stratford this September. Originally slated for Islington, Soul Mama is set in the Gantry hotel, opposite Westfield, and will offer a menu inspired by Caribbean, African and South American cooking. The project is funded by a Kickstarter campaign […]
The Barbary is to open a new flagship on Westbourne Grove in Notting Hill in September. Inspired by the cooking of North Africa, the original was launched by Zoë and Layo Paskin in Neal’s Yard, Covent Garden, eight years ago, and was followed by The Barbary Next Door. The new venue, formerly the Maddox Gallery, is […]
Des Gunewardena has announced plans to open a multifaceted restaurant and bar next year at Olympia, the Victorian exhibition halls in west London currently undergoing a five-year upgrade costing £1.3bn. The announcement comes as Des, a former partner in D&D London, opens the first ventures of his new company D3 Collective – Engel and Jang, […]
Jeremy Clarkson has bought a pub 10 miles from his Diddly Squat Farm in the Cotswolds, which he plans to open later this year to sell his own produce and beer. Announcing the move in his Sunday Times column, the petrol-head-turned-farmer said he had bought The Windmill, a pub and wedding venue on five acres […]
A Japanese restaurant that has made a big splash in Taiwan and mainland China will open its first UK site in Soho’s Wardour Street next month. Kanpai Classic specialises in yakinuku, with customers cooking meat and vegetables themselves on a table-top grill. The grilling options will be led by a choice of 10 cuts of […]
JKS Restaurants is to open a large and ambitious new Indian restaurant – their first in five years – in Mayfair this September. Ambassadors Clubhouse is taking over the Heddon Street premises occupied by Moroccan restaurant Momo until 2020, and will feature a ‘maximalist central bar with a gold dome’ in the main dining room. The 140-cover […]
Former Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons head chef Dorian Janmaat is to open his first restaurant next month – Ardor in St Ives, Cornwall, where he will combine his love of his twin childhood homelands, Spain and Cornwall. The restaurant occupies an old house in Fore Street, with seating over two floors as well as at […]
Florentine comfort food concept Dez Amore opens its first permanent restaurant next week, on a corner site in Chelsea with a retro-modern look inspired by Italy in the 1970s. Launched by two friends from Florence, Leonardo Masi and Simone Parentini (pictured), Dez Amore lays claim to a ‘double soul’ that combines traditional Italian cooking with […]
Irina Linovich’s vegetable-focused project Holy Carrot will open its first bricks and mortar restaurant in Notting Hill next month, with a ‘fire and ferment’-based menu from chef Daniel Watkins, co-founder of Dalston’s ACME Fire Cult. Irina launched Holy Carrot four years ago with a series of supper-club dinners, and the permanent site aims to show […]
A new British Isles-focused restaurant and bar with a strong seafood offer is to open in Greenwich next month. Highroad Social takes over the site of the Rivington Grill, next door to the Picturehouse cinema. Founder David O’Brien is an ex-development director at Caprice Holdings, with an Irish head chef in Fionnan Flood, formerly of The […]