- Public House Group has acquired a six-storey townhouse at 8 Carlos Place in Mayfair, opposite The Connaught hotel. Westminster City Council granted Public House Group Limited planning permission and listed building consent for a major refit earlier this year. The plans span the basement to the fourth floor, including a second-floor commercial kitchen, new back-of-house facilities and toilets, and changes to the layout across several levels. The building was previously fashion designer Roland Mouret’s London flagship store and headquarters. After Mouret’s company went into administration in 2021, House of Louie and Bambini operator Paris Society secured a premises licence for a restaurant and bar at the address, although the venue never opened.
- Jamie Allsopp, owner of The Blue Stoops and Allsopp’s Brewery, has taken over The Warrington Hotel in Maida Vale, with plans to revive the pub and open a first-floor restaurant, Minnie’s. The ground-floor pub will serve modern British food with European influences, led by chef Max Taylor-Baggs, formerly of Straker’s and Dorian. The pub will comprise two bars, with the standing room-only Public Bar serving cask ales and Allsopp’s Double Diamond alongside nightly live piano and Sunday singalongs, while the adjoining Saloon Bar will offer a more relaxed setting for drinks, lunch and dinner. On the first floor, Minnie’s will operate as a separate restaurant serving Anglo-French classics. Named after Allsopp’s great-great-grandmother, the restaurant will combine a grand brasserie format with a neighbourhood dining offer.
- East London Brewing Co. is set to open The Black Horse Tap, a new pub above its brewery on Walthamstow’s Blackhorse Beer Mile, as the independent brewer celebrates 15 years in business. Opening later this month, the venue will accommodate 80 covers inside and a further 80 outside, with a drinks list featuring the brewery’s heritage cask range, hop-forward keg beers, lagers and a weekly changing selection of guest cask ales from independent UK breweries. The offer will also include agave-focused cocktails, independent wines and spirits. Food will be prepared in a dedicated open-fire kitchen, launching with a residency from Play With Fire until the end of the year. Led by chef Matt Purkis, formerly of Lagom and Ibai, the menu will feature reworked pub classics and sharing plates cooked over fire and wood smoke, alongside Sunday roasts.
- Chef and Young MasterChef judge Hasan Semay, known as Big Has, is set to open his first restaurant, Liman, on Green Lanes in Palmers Green, north London, in December. Billed as a Turkish-Cypriot casual grill and fry shop, the restaurant will serve a menu of traditional dishes alongside a regularly changing specials board. A coal-fired mangal will sit at the heart of the open kitchen, producing dishes including whole grilled sea bass, chicken leg and lamb shish, alongside sheftalia, a traditional Cypriot sausage made with minced meat and herbs. A permanent fixture on the menu will be a Cyprus-style döner, made from lamb and slow-cooked on a rotating spit.
- Forbici, the pizzeria brand owned by Individual Restaurants, is set to open its fifth site at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent later this month. Located in The West Village, the 3,500 sq ft restaurant will accommodate 76 covers and feature the brand’s signature open kitchen and a custom-made Italian pizza oven. The menu will feature speciality, guest and white-base pizzas, including the provola e pepe, made with San Marzano tomato, smoked provola, black pepper and fresh basil; and the porcini e tartufo, topped with Fior di latte, porcini mushrooms, Italian truffle sauce and chives. The opening follows Forbici’s London debut on Tooley Street, London Bridge, last month and marks its second location in a major shopping centre, following the launch at Manchester’s Trafford Centre in August this year.