Friday five: the week's top news stories
- Prezzo has announced its staff will receive a minimum 4% pay rise in October and that it will close all of its restaurants on Boxing Day this year. The group, which is backed by Cain International, says the increase will apply to new joiners, with managers benefiting from an average of 5% rise in pay. "“We have introduced new development and pay progression opportunities for both our kitchen and front of house teams to improve the attractiveness of management roles within our restaurants. As a result of the increases, every Prezzo team member will be paid above the national minimum wage," says the company.
- New legislation has been introduced that will mean hospitality businesses will no longer be able to take a proportion of staff tips or service charge. The overhaul of tipping practices mean that all tips will be given directly to hospitality workers without any deductions and that it will be illegal for employers to withhold tips and service charge payments from workers, with a statutory code of practice also being created by the Government. Some two million people working in the hospitality, leisure and services sectors are expected to benefit from the move.
- Confidence among late-night operators in Scotland has been 'shattered' after the country's Government set out a broader-than-expected definition of what will constitute a 'nightclub' under its forthcoming vaccine certificate scheme. Venues that are open between midnight and 5am, serve alcohol after midnight, plays live or recorded music for dancing, and which have a designated space for dancing that is in use will be classed as nightclubs and will be required to take ‘all reasonable measures’ to implement the scheme.
- London restaurants Brat and Ikoyi have joined The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list of 51-100 restaurants for 2021. In total, four UK restaurants, all located in London, have made the longlist this year with Tomos Parry’s Shoreditch restaurant Brat the country's highest new entry at number 78 and Jeremy Chan and Iré Hassan-Odukale's Ikoyi listed at number 87. Core by Clare Smyth and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal are the other two restaurants on the list, ranked at 64 and 65 respectively.
- Italian delicatessen and restaurant brand Lina Stores will move into the Clapham site previously occupied by Robin Gill's The Dairy and Counter Culture restaurants. Lina Stores, which is backed by White Rabbit Projects, will also make its City debut this year by launching in Bloomberg Arcade on the site of Andrew Wong's Kym's restaurant, of which White Rabbit was also an investor. Lina Stores was launched as a deli on Brewer Street in Soho back in 1944 and opened its first restaurant on Soho's Greek Street in 2018.
