Friday Five: the week's top news
- The UK eating out market is expected to make a full recovery and exceed its pre-pandemic value by the end of 2022, according to new research. The Lumina Intelligence UK Eating Out Market Report 2021 reveals that the UK eating out market is expected to grow 33.4% in 2021, to £63.6bn. By the end of 2022, the market is set to be worth £91.9bn, exceeding its pre-pandemic value of £91.3bn. The total eating out market declined by 47.8% to just £47.7bn in 2020, with just 11.3 weeks of normal trading.
- A new campaign initiative backed by Angela Hartnett and Padella founders Jordan Frieda and Tim Siadatan has launched to help people find work in the hospitality sector. With the sector currently facing a staffing crisis, Into Hospitality aims to promote hospitality as a career to the public whilst also offering courses, training and work placements at some of London’s most high-profile restaurants. The outreach programme will work with local housing associations in the capital to help people get into hospitality as a career, and offer four days of training, led by Gander, that will cover hospitality skills including team work; kitchen set up; knife skills; cooking and food preparation; and interview and CV preparation. Into Hospitality will then offer graduates of the programme a trial placement at one of its partner restaurants, with many subsequently being given permanent positions.
- Boxpark is to debut its new sibling concept Boxhall next summer in Bristol, marking the group's first opening outside of London. The shipping-container mall group has agreed a lease to take over and redevelop the historic dockside O&M Sheds on Welsh Back, in the city centre. Spread over 20,000sq ft, Boxhall Bristol will have seven kitchens and feature two terrace areas overlooking the waterside. Alongside the food offer, it will provide a community-led programme of events in collaboration with local homegrown talent and partners, as well as competitive socialising experiences.
- Niklas Ekstedt will open his first restaurant outside Sweden in September, taking over the space that was once home to The Yard by Robin Gill within Westminster's Great Scotland Yard Hotel. In common with Ekstedt's eponymous Stockholm flagship - which famously eschews modern cooking gadgets - Ekstedt at The Yard will cook nearly all of its dishes over wood. The menu will feature a number of signature dishes from Ekstedt - which has featured on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list and currently holds a Michelin star - alongside an 'inventive cocktail list and a 'pioneering' natural wine list. Dishes will include oyster flambadou with smoked apple and beurre blanc nasturtium; ember baked leeks, white fish roe and smoked roe deer; reindeer, smoked celeriac, black pudding and salt baked roots; and cep soufflé with birch ice cream and blueberries.
- BrewDog co-founder James Watt has promised to 'listen, learn and act' after former employees alleged the craft beer company fostered a 'culture of fear' among staff. In an open letter published yesterday (9 June) by a group calling itself ‘Punks without Purpose’, it is claimed that a 'significant number' of former staff had 'suffered mental illness as a result of working at BrewDog'. More than 100 former BrewDog staff have signed the letter, including at least 45 'who did not feel safe to include either their names or initials'.
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