Monday 15/2/16
Propelinfonews.com: Pho opens Cambridge venue, group’s 18th site: Vietnamese street food restaurant group Pho has opened a venue in Cambridge, its 18th site. The restaurant in Wheeler Street seats about 150 over two floors and includes a cocktail bar. The restaurant specialises in pho, the national dish of Vietnam, and serves other Vietnamese street foods such as spring and summer rolls, spicy salads, curries and wok-fried noodles, along with Vietnamese coffees and beers. The group is run by Stephen and Juliette Wall.
Propleinfonews.com: Chilli Village restaurant complex set to open in Northampton: Chilli Village, a buffet-style restaurant “complex” selling food from around the world, is set to open in Northampton in March. The venue in Wellingborough Road, on the site of the former Fusion buffet house, will offer diners a choice of six individual restaurants, live entertainment and a shisha lounge under the same roof. A Chilli Village spokesperson told the Northampton Chronicle: “All of the restaurants are going to be quite different. People will have the opportunity to visit each one and feel like they are in a different place each time. We don’t want it just to be a place where you go for a meal, it is a place to relax and enjoy and be entertained. People don’t often know where to go on a night out, but people will be spoiled for choice here.”
Propelinfonews.com: New street food concept Foodies Rocks eyes Northampton town centre site: Foodies Rocks, a new world street food restaurant concept, has applied to open on the site of a former pizzeria in Northampton town centre. A plan has been submitted to Northampton Borough Council to convert the building once occupied by Pizza Derngate. The restaurant will offer dishes from around the world, including savoury and sweet food from the streets of India, Taiwan, China and Mexico among others. The venue aims to create 12 jobs and would be open from 8am until midnight, Sunday to Thursday, and 8am until 1.30am, Friday to Saturday, serving craft beer alongside the food, the Northampton Chronicle reported. A planning statement submitted as part of the application, which requests for a change of use from a cafe to a combined restaurant/cafe and drinking establishment, stated that the venue will be “aimed at students, families with children, theatre enthusiasts, couples and friends”. The bottom floor of the two-storey venue would feature table football and an art gallery, with menu options for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Tuesday 16/2/16
Morning Advertiser: Pub with “unprecedented level of support” finds new home after being threatened with closure
By Emily Sutherland, 15-Feb-2016
A Norwich pub that received an “unprecedented” level of support when it was facing closure is celebrating after finding a new home. Read More
Wednesday 17/2/16
Propelinfonews.com: JD Wetherspoon starts work on first pub and stand-alone hotel in Huntingdon, gets go-ahead in nearby St Ives: JD Wetherspoon has started work on its first pub and stand-alone hotel development, located in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire (population: 23,372). It is converting the Old Post Office and George Hall and will open later this year. The company bought the site in George Street in 2013 and originally intended to have the pub and its 20-bedroom hotel open by 2014. It was announced last month the delay in work starting on the listed properties came after the company wanted to “take into account” the history of the buildings. It is likely a lot of the originally features from the two buildings will aim to be saved and used in the pub. To create the pub, coined Sandford House, the company will invest £4m that will see it link the 4,623 square foot grade II-listed Old Post Office to the George Hall, which sits on the corner of the site, to create a single large pub and dining area covering about 3,500 square foot. The pub’s name Sandford House was chosen by the company after it was revealed it was the name for the Old Post Office when it was a private residence. Meanwhile, a new pub for JD Wetherspoon has been given the go-ahead in nearby St Ives town centre, despite concerns over the impact of noise from a beer garden on nearby residents. Councillors insisted an outdoor sensor be fitted, along with an acoustic fence at the rear of the building, in a bid to prevent noise. Approval for the pub was given by Huntingdonshire District Council’s development management panel on the day work started on the new pub and hotel in Huntingdon.
Propelinfonews.com: JD Wetherspoon to ‘unexpectedly’ close Luton pub: JD Wetherspoon is to “unexpectedly” close the London Hatter pub in Luton on Sunday (February 21). The company said it has made a “commercial decision” to shut the Park Street site, which was not among the pubs it put up for sale last year. JD Wetherspoon spokesman Eddie Gershon told the Luton News: “We can confirm that The London Hatter is closing on 21 February. We understand that the pub’s loyal customers will be disappointed with the decision, however, Wetherspoon has made a commercial decision to close the pub. Staff at the pub will be re-employed at other Wetherspoon pubs. The company operates other pubs in Luton and hopefully The London Hatter customers will choose to go to those.” The London Hatter opened in 2011 following a £960,000 refurbishment of the former Legends nightclub.
Propelinfonews.com: Town & Country Inns to start expanding Fleet Street Kitchen brand with three new sites this year: Town & Country Inns is to start expanding its Fleet Street Kitchen brand by opening three new sites this year. The company said it would be launching venues in Leamington Spa, Mere Green (Sutton Coldfield) and Lincoln. Managing director Mark Jones told The Business Desk: “If you are persistent you can achieve anything. If you are consistent, you’ll keep it. Excellence is not an act, it’s a habit.” Town & Country Inns opened the first site for the brand in Fleet Street on the edge of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter in 2012. Last year, the company announced it was planning to open six Fleet Street Kitchen venues having sold two of its Apres outlets in Solihull and Lichfield to Walkabout operator Intertain.
Thursday 18/2/16
Propelinfonews.com: Old Northampton Group to open fourth site: Old Northampton Group (ONG) is to open its fourth site in Northampton. The company is launching pub restaurant The Lighthouse, which it said would have the largest range of beers and ales in the county, reports the Northampton Chronicle. ONG has already invested £6m in the town with its three venues Sazerac Bar, Old House and the Department of Meat and Social Affairs. Now it will open The Lighthouse in Wellingborough Road on the site of the former Allen Lyman office supplies as part of a £3m development in the street. The Lighthouse will feature a 100-seater restaurant and is expected to create 30 jobs when it launches in the spring. ONG is also planning to create two new retail units and six “purpose-built flats a few doors away in the former Platinum Motors building. It also recently gained planning permission to extend Sazerac Bar to double the clubroom capacity and create a roof garden.
Morning Advertiser: Skegness pub goes viral after creating a Guinness/Smirnoff Ice hybrid
By Emily Sutherland, 17-Feb-2016
A Skegness pub has gone viral on Facebook after creating a Smirnoff Ice and Guinness hybrid. Read More
Propelinfonews.com: Birmingham bar operators to open second site at former Mitchells & Butlers pub: Birmingham bar operators Mark and Chrissy Rafferty are to start expanding their portfolio by opening a second site in a former Mitchells & Butlers pub vacant for nearly two decades. The Raffertys, who own The Pickled Piglet in Gas Street, are launching The Pig & Tail at the former George and Dragon in Albion Street this summer following a £100,000 investment, creating ten jobs. It will sell craft beer, small dishes and sharing plates. Historical records indicate there has been a pub on the site since 1851 since when it has undergone several extensions and additions. It also housed a brewery before operating solely as a pub, latterly by Mitchells & Butlers before its eventual closure in the late 1990s. Mark Rafferty is now in talks with two West Midlands breweries with a view to selling their drinks and possibly launching new beer brands. He told the Birmingham Mail: The two venues will be very different. There’s a lot of passion out there at the moment for craft beers and it’s all about British produce. Working with the breweries, we will also look to create our own beer in the future as well.
Propelinfonews.com: Marston’s lines up venue at Skegness Town’s football ground: Marston’s plan to build a restaurant and pub on Skegness Town Football Club’s ground has won the support of local councillors. Marston’s has applied for planning permission as part of a development with Aldi, which is expected to create 200 jobs. The football club will relocate from Burgh Road to Wainfleet Road. Richard Wherry, a director for developers Quora, told the East Lindsey Target: We are delighted to announce that Aldi and Marston’s have been confirmed as tenants. We are also having detailed discussions with a number of other retailers for the site.
Friday 19/2/16
Propelinfonews.com: Wholesaler Matthew Clark warns customers of ‘enormous’ price rise for Thatchers Gold and Dry: Bristol-based wholesaler Matthew Clark has written to customers to warn them Thatchers cider will impose an £8.65 per keg rise on wholesale prices of Thatchers Gold and Thatchers Dry. The price rise will come into effect on Tuesday, 1 March. In a letter to customers, Matthew Clark stated: “The increases are explained solely by Thatchers’ belief that these products can command substantially higher prices in the market. We find it odd that Thatchers would wish to behave in such a manner, especially towards those customers who have helped build their brands. We find ourselves with no alternative but to pass on this enormous increase to you, our customers. You may take the view that this level of increase is unwelcome and unjustified.” The company adds customers should get in contact if they would like to discuss “alternative cider products”.
Nottinghampost.com: Famous Cow Pie and other initiatives help Radcliffe-on-Trent Golf Club duo scoop Midlands award: Nottinghamshire’s Phill and Louise Maxwell have been recognised for their successes at Radcliffe-on-Trent Golf Club.The duo were named Fuller’s London Pride Steward of the Year for England Golf’s Midlands region and received their trophy at the annual presentation lunch at The Counting House in London. The competition to find and recognise England’s top golf club stewards was in its ninth year and attracted hundreds of votes for the nominated stewards. Phill commented: “We’ve got a great team of people behind us, our staff, the management committee and the club manager.” Louise added: “The club is very well supported by the members and they come up even when the course is closed.” The couple (pictured) are very experienced stewards. Phill spent 25 years as the steward at Newark Golf Club before moving to Radcliffe-on-Trent two years ago, where they have the catering franchise, including a halfway house, and run the bar. They’ve introduced a 15 percent loyalty/discount card and started Sunday lunches, which have become hugely popular with members and local residents. They also run weddings and birthday parties as well as a full range of social events such as wine tastings and summer barbecues – including their locally famous ‘Cow Pie’. During the time they’ve been at the club they’ve increased the food turnover by 42 percent and the bar by 17 percent.