- Dave’s Hot Chicken’s London, Birmingham and Liverpool restaurants were forced to close temporarily by the police after the sites became overcrowded due to a giveaway to coincide with the birthday of investor Rapper Drake’s. Steve Holmes, CEO of Azzuri, which operates the brand in the UK, described the situation as ‘horrendous’ but said that such high level of demand was also ‘quite cool’.
- Wine bar group Vagabond is billing its newest site, set to open early next month, as the UK’s largest urban winery. The new venue will be in east London’s Canada Water with a 6,000sq ft space combining the group’s self-pour wine bar model and 100-tonne winery led by head winemaker José Quintana. The opening also marks the launch of Vagabond’s online store, now available nationwide.
- Des Gunewardena is set to open 300-cover restaurant Idalia at the £1.3bn redevelopment of Olympia next spring. Gunewardena’s D3 collective will also open two other projects at the Pillar Hall venue - Pepperbird, a 70-cover speakeasy, and Upstairs at Pillar Hall, a double height 500-capacity event space. Collectively the trio of projects will be more than a £10m investment.
- The owner of Caravel and Studio Kitchen has disputed claims made by former business partners Fin and Lorcan Spiteri that they left the business due to ‘circumstances out of their control’. The brothers announced that they were leaving on 16 November via Instagram but Billy McCartney, co-owner of the business’s parent company The Armada Group, said the pair gave notice of their departure with immediate effect on 14 November. Their unexpected resignation prompted the temporary closure of the two venues after several other staff members also left.
- Evolv Collection has revealed its plans to help French Restaurant Orrery to regain its Michelin star nearly 20 years since it lost it. Martin Williams, the CEO of Evlov Collection, described the plans as ‘very exciting’. Evolv also intends to revive the Japanese concept Miyabi as well as grow its presence in the UK and abroad.