- Claude Bosi’s eponymous two Michelin star restaurant within the Michelin House building in London’s Chelsea has ceased trading, suddenly, after seven years. Bosi and his wife Lucy, whom he ran the restaurant with, confirmed in a statement posted to Instagram that its last service was held on 25 August and all future bookings have been cancelled. The couple said that despite their best efforts, they had been unable to reach a resolution with their business partners and landlords that would have allowed the restaurant to move into its next chapter.
- Loungers chairman and co-founder Alex Reilley has quit the Government’s Hospitality Sector Council (HSC) after facing pressure from civil servants for publicly criticising Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s tax policies. Reilley told The Telegraph he stepped down from the HSC after warning that the Government’s Budget policies, including the rise in employer National Insurance contributions (NICs), was ‘condemning high streets and town centres and consigning them to the trash’. “I was critical of the Government, which they didn’t like because their view is ‘well hang on, you’re on the inside now and you can’t be publicly criticising what the Government is doing’,” he said. “Well, I’m going to publicly criticise when I feel that criticism is justified, and so I took the view that I wasn’t prepared to stop speaking my mind.”
- American diner chain Denny’s is plotting ‘significant expansion’ in the UK, with offers being considered for its master franchise for the territory. FRP Corporate Finance has been appointed to assess potential partners to acquire the franchise of the restaurant brand, which has almost 1,500 sites globally including around 1,300 in the US. Denny’s has operated a proof-of-concept restaurant at Parc Tawe in Swansea, Wales, since 2017, which is being marketed as part of the sale process. FRP says the Swansea site has generated ‘strong margins’, serving more than 13,500 dine-in orders each year, and provides the basis for franchise investors to bring the Denny’s brand to city centres, airports, service stations and drive-thru sites across the UK.
- Bone Daddies Group founder and former Nobu executive chef Ross Shonhan is opening an opulent seafood restaurant in Mayfair next month. Lilibet’s will open at 17 Bruton Street, which is also the address of Hakkasan Mayfair and which was once the site of a Palladian mansion and the birthplace of the late Queen Elizabeth II. Taking its name from the childhood nickname of Queen Elizabeth II, who called herself Lilibet as a toddler because she had difficulty pronouncing her full name, Lilibet’s serves a menu that follows an imaginary Grand Tour the princess might have taken through the Mediterranean. The 160-cover restaurant will offer a number of dining experiences, including an Oyster Bar and a bespoke wood-fired grill.
- Adam Handling has promoted Cleverson Cordeiro from head chef to proprietor of Frog by Adam Handling, his Michelin-starred flagship restaurant in London’s Covent Garden. In the new role, Cordeiro will continue to oversee the kitchen and guest experience at Frog, while also taking on a deeper role in the wider Adam Handling Collection alongside the eponymous chef and his team of directors. Cordeiro joined the Frog team ahead of the restaurant’s launch in September 2017 and is credited by Handling as being a ‘driving force’ behind its success.