- Steak restaurant group Gaucho has been criticised for ‘greenwashing’ by a modern slavery charity over claims it hasn’t made its carbon offset payments. Charity Not for Sale claims the chain is yet to pay a £60,000 invoice for carbon offset work carried out in 2024. Gaucho has responded saying it will not be making a donation to Not For Sale this year and instead will pursue a different carbon strategy.
- Chef Michael O’Hare is to return with a new Leeds restaurant. The former The Man Behind The Curtain chef will open a restaurant that appears to be called In Lamentation in Boston Spa, an affluent village within the Leeds metropolitan district. O’Hare describes the restaurant as “super intimate” with just 16 covers. According to the post (below), it will operate just four services a week.
- Chef James Tanner has been involved in an accident that led to him needing five hours of surgery. The chef, who runs The Kentish Hare gastropub in Bidborough, Kent, alongside his brother Chris, shattered his pelvis in three places in the accident last week.
- KFC has opened its first site under its drinks-led Kwench brand, in Liverpool’s city centre. The new Kwench bar on Lord Street is described as a ‘world first’ for the fried chicken giant and marks the brand’s attempts to tap into the growing market for beverages. The KFC site comprises 100 covers across two floors, with a standalone Kwench bar occupying the first floor.
- Sri Lankan and South Indian restaurant group Hoppers has taken the former Lyle’s site in Shoreditch for its fourth restaurant in the capital. Set to launch early next year, Hoppers Shoreditch will offer a new line up of regional South Indian dishes from the states of Chettinad, Madurai, Bangalore, Kochi and Chennai.