Amid a challenging hospitality landscape marked by rising costs, soaring taxes, and a steady wave of closures, the UK restaurant sector continues to face mounting pressure. From long-standing neighbourhood favourites to high-profile ventures, operators are grappling with tighter margins, shifting consumer habits, and an uncertain economic outlook.
Yet among the ‘closed’ signs and heartfelt farewell Instagram posts, there are still brands that are managing not only to endure but to expand, demonstrating that growth is still possible with the right concept, timing, and operational discipline.
Among them is Brother Marcus, which has emerged as a notable example of resilience and steady expansion. Founded by Alex Large and Tasos Gaitanos, what began as a small brunch café in Balham 10 years ago has evolved into a small group of all-day dining destinations known for its Eastern Mediterranean cuisine.
Expansion as opportunity
The growth of Brother Marcus has continued at pace, with openings in Covent Garden in 2024, followed by Canary Wharf and Soho in 2025. Most recently, its Victoria site launched in late 2025, further strengthening the brand’s presence across London.
Today, the group operates eight sites across the capital, but the question of when to expand remains deliberately unresolved. Growth is treated as both a risk and a tool for internal development. Each new opening creates clear pathways for progression, allowing team members to take on greater responsibility and build experience within a growing organisation.
“Honestly, you’re never truly ready to open a restaurant. It’s a huge financial pressure and strain, but the benefits, especially for the wider team, can be great,” says Gaitanos. “Not only does it present opportunities for people to step into bigger roles – for example, an assistant manager moving to a new site to become a manager – but it’s also like a muscle; if you stop using it, it gets weaker. If we keep opening sites and get the team involved, they become better at it.
“That’s already evident – our Victoria opening was much smoother than Covent Garden’s 18 months ago.”
However, the brand remains firm on one principle: expansion cannot come at the expense of the existing estate. “One thing we’ll never sacrifice is the experience,” Gaitanos adds. “We’ve made that mistake before, where all the focus goes to the new opening and the rest of the business suffers. We won’t do that again.”
From brunch cafe to all-day destination
In the early days, the two founders were still figuring out the direction of the business and what they wanted it to become. The original site operated only during the day, running from around 8am to 4pm, with a focus purely on brunch.
The first major turning point for the brand came in 2018 with the opening of its Angel site. This marked a strategic shift, as the team expanded from a daytime-only café into a full all-day concept, integrating Gaitanos’s Greek heritage into the menu and design.
There was a real moment where we thought we might have got it wrong
Tasos Gaitanos
“It was then that we really found our identity; adding evening service wasn’t just about extending hours - it was about leaning into Tasos’s heritage and creating a concept that could stretch across the day,” says said Large. “That’s when Brother Marcus became more than just a café.”
The success of Angel provided the foundation for further expansion, and in 2019 the brand opened a second site in Spitalfields, consolidating its growing presence in central London.
Under pressure
If the early years were about discovery, the next phase was defined by pressure. Expansion accelerated against the backdrop of the Covid pandemic, Brexit, rising inflation, and global instability. In 2022 the brand opened in Borough. “That, for the business and for us, was transformational,” says Gaitanos. “It was a real privilege to be able to open in that location and enter a new market. More than anything, it gave us a solid backbone for the business - we could really build from and use as a springboard to continue growing.”
Yet growth came at a cost. The opening of the South Kensington site came in quick succession and saw staff numbers jump from 60 to 120 within a short period, placing significant strain on the operation as the founders continued to manage key areas, such as recruitment, themselves.
“Right at the point when we probably should have started building out a central team, we went and opened South Kensington,” says Large. “Every penny of our turnover we spent, and it ended up being the most stressful year ever.”
“There was a real moment where we thought we might have got it wrong,” adds Gaitanos.
That strain forced a reset. The founders brought in Dorian Waite, co-founder of Honest Burgers, as a non-executive advisor to utilise his experience of scaling businesses and define what success looked like at scale. Subsequently, central teams were established across operations, finance, marketing, and people and culture.
“Instead of trying to juggle everything ourselves, we started surrounding ourselves with people for specific areas,” Gaitanos explains. “It transformed the business and meant that we could continue improving the concept as we went about scaling it.”
Formula for success
After years of refinement, a clearer format has begun to take shape. The focus is on larger sites - typically 3,000 square feet or more - with a strong preference for ground-floor locations as well as open kitchens. As confidence in the model has grown, so too has the willingness to take on bigger restaurants.
At present, Borough and Spitalfields are the brand’s top-performing sites, though the founders hope this ranking will change over the next 12 months. Larger locations such as Canary Wharf and Victoria are expected to take the lead, driven by their size and capacity. Victoria, in particular, with its 200 covers and terrace, is expected to perform especially strongly during the summer months.
When we leave London, we need to spend a lot of time in wherever we choose to go to really understand what it is the people of that city or place want and what that means for Brother Marcus
Alex Large
“The company has moved toward a more consistent format. Now, performance across these locations is becoming much closer,” says Large. “The newer sites are still maturing, but Covent Garden and Canary Wharf are already showing strong results.”
On the positioning side of things, the brand has learned from Borough that being near major transport hubs works exceptionally well. “We’ve seen that our brand performs really well in areas with city workers, tourists - both UK and international - and commuters from surrounding counties,” says Gaitanos, adding that this principle is reflected in locations like Victoria and Canary Wharf.
The brand has also dipped its toes into new territory. Above Brother Marcus Soho, the group has launched Kamara, a dedicated cocktail bar inspired by Eastern Mediterranean drinking culture. The concept emerged partly from opportunity – as the space already included a bar - but also from passion.
“We love bars. We spend a lot of time in them when we travel, so when the chance came up, we went for it,” says Large.
Kamara is more focused and less scalable than the core restaurant model, but it represents something important: a willingness to experiment. “Including a bar has a certain list of requirements,” Gaitanos explains. “It needs to be a drinking scene or a hub, so that automatically reduces the scalability, but what it does do is it can open up major cities, not just across the UK, but also Europe and America.”
Adaptability
One principle that both founders agree has remained crucial, especially with a brand that occupies various London neighbourhoods, is adaptability. In South Kensington, the menu leans heavily into all-day brunch to reflect tourist demand. In Canary Wharf, the offer shifts toward larger sharing plates and more protein-led dishes to suit the local crowd.
Even with a more specific format taking shape, rather than enforcing a rigid concept, the team adjusts to each neighbourhood. “Some brands are completely uncompromising,” says Gaitanos. “We’ve probably been the opposite - and that’s worked in our favour.”
Brother Marcus’ adaptability also extends to the food offering, with menus changing around three times a year, guided by seasonality, guest feedback, and ongoing research into Eastern Mediterranean cuisine.
“The food we serve today is the best it’s ever been,” Large adds. “And we want to be able to say that again in two years.”
Looking beyond London
As Brother Marcus approaches its tenth anniversary, the business finds itself at a natural inflection point. With multiple sites established and a stronger operational foundation in place, the focus is shifting towards refining the model and exploring how the brand can extend beyond physical spaces. Plans include deeper storytelling around Eastern Mediterranean culture and finding efficiencies to streamline operations within the business.
Expansion beyond the capital also seems inevitable, although the pair insist it isn’t part of the immediate roadmap. When the time does come, however, it will be approached with real intention, they say. Rather than assuming the brand can simply be lifted and placed into a new city, the team is clear that success outside London will require deep understanding.
Some brands are completely uncompromising. We’ve probably been the opposite - and that’s worked in our favour
Tasos Gaitanos
“When we leave London, we need to spend a lot of time in wherever we choose to go to really understand what it is the people of that city or place want and what that means for Brother Marcus,” says Large. “To assume the people outside of London are going to want the same as in London would be naïve of us.”
Cities like Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Dublin all hold strong appeal, while closer to the capital, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol and Brighton offer exciting potential - but for now, they remain possibilities rather than plans.
But for all the talk about expansion and evolution, the core idea remains unchanged. “We’re in the business of joy,” says Gaitanos. After a decade of change, challenge and reinvention, that is one constant that’s carried them this far - and will likely take them further still.