- A new pizza brand connected to Gregg Wallace has begun recruiting staff as it prepares to launch. The venture, called Austin’s Dad, is fronted by an entrepreneur known only as ‘Will’, who says he wants to disrupt the UK food market by launching a chain selling 12-inch pizzas priced between £5 and £8. Wallace has been promoting the project across his social media channels, although his exact role in the business has not been disclosed. A job advert for a videographer reveals the first restaurant will open in Stamford, Lincolnshire, while also hinting at the brand’s ambitions with the tagline ‘Le Morte Del Domino’ – the death of the Domino. The business also says it plans to return 80% of store profits to the 18- to 25-year-olds from disadvantaged backgrounds, who will run its locations.
- Michelin-starred chef Steve Drake has closed his Surrey restaurant Sorrel with immediate effect, just months after putting the business up for sale. The Dorking restaurant, which opened in 2017, ceased trading on 28 July, with Drake describing the decision as “like a bereavement”. He said rising costs and the difficult trading environment had made the business financially unsustainable, adding that the “financials of running an independent restaurant simply don’t work”. Drake also disclosed that the restaurant had lost a lot of money trying to stay afloat. The closure comes after Drake put the Michelin-starred restaurant, housed in a Grade II-listed 18th-century building, on the market in May as he looked to move on.
- Former Kiln head chef Karla Knowles is preparing to launch her first two restaurants, with a debut site, provisionally called 61 Charterhouse St, opening in London’s Farringdon this October followed by live-fire Northern Thai concept, AREE, in Notting Hill in early 2027. Ahead of the openings, Knowles is running the KARLA Pop-up Series designed to give her and her team a chance to ‘collaborate’ and ‘experiment’. Both restaurants will join the Maisons Vivantes hospitality group, founded by Romain Bourrillon, with the first restaurant opening in partnership with former Cocotte area manager Eddy Bourrillon. Knowles will lead the kitchens across both ventures, with AREE co-founded with Eddy and Romain Bourrillon.
- Brava Hospitality, the operator behind Prezzo Italian and Jamie’s Italian (UK), has bought the three-strong Riding House Café group for an undisclosed sum. Backed by Cain International, the deal brings the all-day dining operator’s three central London restaurants – Riding House Fitzrovia, Riding House Bloomsbury and Rail House Victoria – under Brava’s ownership. The company says the acquisition marks a significant expansion of its hospitality portfolio and strengthens its position in the central London dining scene, adding that it also supports its strategy to grow formats that serve guests across multiple dayparts and occasions.
- Cult New Haven-style pizzeria Lenny’s is set to open its first permanent restaurant in Covent Garden this autumn in partnership with MJMK Restaurants. The Henrietta Street site marks the next step for founder Max Lewis, who started selling apizza, a style first developed by Italian immigrants in New Haven in the early 1900s, at his residency at pub Bedford Tavern in Finsbury Park in 2024. The menu will feature a number of menu items from the residency, including the Tomato Pie and signature The Lenny, which is one half topped with tomato, garlic and pecorino and the other a classic mozzarella pie.