Monday Bulletin: Posh pubs and Piccadilly pasta bars

Catch up on the latest industry news stories of the week from the CODE Bulletin

The next posh pub

What constitutes a ‘posh pub’? That’s up for debate, but there’s no denying higher-end surge, particularly in London. The latest, described as a ‘pub and dining room’, is The Holland on Earl’s Court Road in Kensington. Formerly The Princess Victoria, chef Max de Nahlik – from the Duke of Cambridge in Islington – has teamed up with GM Richard Banks to create ‘a friendly local for the W8 community, and a culinary destination in its own right’. Max will be cooking ‘seasonal, British-ingredient-led cuisine’ over two floors, with meat from The Ethical Butcher and seafood and game from Henderson’s. He said his menu will be ‘unpretentious and fun’: upcoming dishes include crab on toast; pork collar with greengage chutney; and hake and fennel salad. On Sundays? Classic roasts. The wine? Starts at £5 a glass or £20 a bottle (excellent). Instagram suggests the draughts on offer will be Brixton pale ale, Aspall, Birra Moretti, and Guinness. The interiors, designed by the cabinet maker Tortie Hoare, a long-time friend of Max, were inspired by the many pubs across Dorset, Somerset, and Wiltshire, where the pair ‘whiled away much of their misspent youth’. Opens 14 September.

Chet’s 

The Thai-Americana diner Chet’s, which popped up at the residency space Rondo la Cave in Holborn earlier this summer, will open a permanent site at the new Hoxton hotel in Shepherd’s Bush in December. The concept, devised by LA’s Night + Market founder Kris Yenbamroong, will bring back the chef’s pork and beef smash burger with chilli, hot dogs elevated with nam prik, and a bucatini pasta dish flavoured with nam plaa. There was talk of the move when the pop-up was announced back in May and it has now been confirmed for the new 237-bedroom hotel.

Small plates

• The casual South East Asian concept Sunda Kitchen has opened at the former Wahlburgers site in Covent Garden, which closed in 2020 after a red carpet launch the year before. The Sunda team is made up of Jamie Younger, director of the Begging Bowl in Peckham; Phil Sutton, owner of the Perry Hill Pub in Catford; and Adam Papa, co-owner of Happiness Forgets in Shoreditch.

• The Clink Restaurant in Cardiff is to close after ten years. The charity said the restaurant’s lease is set to expire and cannot be renewed. Clink CEO Yvonne Thomas said: ‘It’s a sad day for us – Wales is such an important part of The Clink. Over the last 10 years, we have trained more than 400 serving prisoners.’ Wider hospitality training programmes for prisoners will continue in Wales.

• The Frog restaurant in Harrogate has been forced to change its name following a legal challenge from the Adam Handling Restaurant Group (AHRG), The Caterer reported last week. A spokesman for AHRG said the similarity had ‘caused confusion’ among customers. It follows a similar situation last month involving a bakery in South London.

• There are happenings in Bromley, where the newly renovated Town Hall, a Grade II-listing building built in 1906, is about to reopen. Inside will be Dorothy & Marshall, a new all-day restaurant led by Ralph Jones, who’s worked for the Galvin Brothers and Marco Pierre White, according to Hot Dinners. On the menu? Braised short rib in Guinness and artichoke tarts. 

Closures tracker

Across the UK, restaurants have had no choice but to close. Beloved neighbourhood spots like The Laughing Heart, and Peg in Hackney, London, have been impacted by staff shortages, rising rents, the energy crisis and all manner of other challenges. Here, we will publish a rolling list of restaurant closures across the country, which will be updated monthly. It is a difficult undertaking, but we hope it also proves to be a useful one. Please get in touch with us at [email protected] with news.

Energy crisis update

Hospitality is still waiting for a full breakdown of what support might be available to help combat the energy crisis. On Thursday, the Government announced plans to help households over the next two years – bills will be capped at £2,500 annually from October – and said businesses will receive ‘equivalent support’, though only for six months. Further news that the new Prime Minister Liz Truss is working with the business secretary to conduct a ‘three-month review’ to determine targeted measures for vulnerable industries was called ‘positive’ by UKHospitality CEO Kate Nicholls, but she said many cannot wait for three months to find out what’s coming.

Phil Howard

The award-winning chef Phil Howard and his business partner Julian Dyer will open a new pasta restaurant in early November. OTTO, a 74-cover site in Piccadilly, follows the duo’s London-based pasta delivery company of the same name, which debuted as an online service in May last year. An announcement said OTTO will ‘celebrate Phil’s career-long love of pasta’ and will focus on ingredients-led dishes in a restaurant set to ‘evoke a warm and comfortable Italian trattoria’. 

Adejoké Bakare

Chef-patron Adejoké Bakare and her increasingly popular West African restaurant Chishuru are on the move. Adejoké said her Brixton restaurant has outgrown its current premises in Brixton Village. She told our sister title The Good Food Guide there are options in Brixton, with landlords Hondo keen for the restaurant to stay, but said she and her team have been scoping out sites elsewhere, and the most likely, now, is in the West End. 

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