- Chef Tom Brown is returning to Knightsbridge’s The Capital Hotel to head up its new restaurant. He will open a 28-cover eponymous restaurant in the spring that will embody his ‘signature style of clean, creative, and produce-driven cooking’ with a menu that features ‘bold, fearless dishes showcasing exceptional quality and innovative techniques’.
- Tapas bar and restaurant group Camino is bringing the remaining two Iberica restaurants into its portfolio, marking the end of the Spanish brand on the high street. The group will reopen Iberica Farringdon as a Camino later this month, with the Victoria restaurant set to rebrand as a Camino in mid February. It will also open a pintxo bar in Covent Garden in the spring. Called Pintxito, the small 30-cover, 550sq ft bar will be located within the arches of Covent Garden’s piazza.
- Three regional Itsu restaurants operated under franchise by Heart with Smart (HwS) have closed following the franchisee’s pre-pack sale to US-based private equity firm Directional Capital. HwS’s Itsu restaurants in Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Reading are all listed as closed on the Itsu website with notes saying that they will ‘hopefully reopen soon’.
- Josh Katz has closed the second iteration of his Mediterranean restaurant concept Carmel in London’s Fitzrovia after little more than nine months' trading. Katz, who is also behind London restaurants Berber & Q and Shawarma Bar, launched Carmel Fitzrovia in April last year on Market Place, just off Oxford Street, within the site that was previously home to MJMK’s short-lived Cuban restaurant La Rampa and prior to that US brand Sweet Chick. Speaking to Restaurant at the time, Katz acknowledged the restaurant site’s chequered history, but said he believed he had what it took to make it work.
- A monthly jump in the number of hospitality insolvencies could be ‘an early warning sign of what’s to come’ for the industry, analysts have warned. According to new Government statistics, accommodation and food services insolvencies rose 29% month-on-month between October and November 2024, from 253 to 327. It marks the first month of post Budget insolvency data and follows three months of steady decline in the month-on-month figures.