Urban Kitchen heading to Nottingham

Kevin Wright, Naomi Wright and Jasmin Barlow-Wilkinson hope to open Urban Kitchen this autumn. The new restaurant will be located in Hockley, the city’s creative quarter, and will provide 13 new jobs.

The menu has yet to be announced but Barlow-Wilkinson - who also runs Nottingham’s Homemade Café - says it will have international influences and will be “focused on delivering an exciting food sharing experience, full of familiar ingredients that are both healthy yet appetising”.

Renovation work is already underway. The building will be sensitively restored to reflect the industrial feel of the area, with bare brick walls, a double height ceiling, exposed metal and the site’s original wooden floors.

According to recent research from trade show Northern Restaurant & Bar, Nottingham’s independent food and drink scene is now the third biggest for growth in the UK, having seen a 12.5 per cent increase in the number of independent bars and restaurants launched since 2014. Hockley is considered to be Nottingham’s hub for independent businesses and is experiencing a wave of growth in the restaurant sector.

“Nottingham City Council’s commitment to the Hockley area has been one of the big catalysts to the area’s current success, particularly in the way it is encouraging independent businesses as well as developing the area’s café culture with different initiatives such as limiting road traffic and allowing more outside pavement seating, ” says co-founder Naomi Wright.