Friday Five: the week's top news
- Richard Caring is in talks over a possible acquisition of Corbin & King after the London-based restaurant group was placed into administration by its majority shareholder, Minor International. According to The Times, Minor is understood to have approached Caring, the restaurateur and private members’ club mogul who backs The Ivy Collection, Bill’s and Soho House, prior to the administration and is an 'early frontrunner' to take over the business. One of Caring’s representatives met Minor late last week and Caring himself is expected to speak to the Thai investor early this week.
- James Lowe's Borough Market restaurant Flor has closed permanently. The restaurant, which opened in the summer of 2019 and is currently ranked at number 49 on the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards top 100 list, had recently been repositioned as a bakery and wine shop but has now closed completely. Flor Bakery at Spa Terminus in Bermondsey, which launched late last year and is being overseen by pastry chef Helen Evans, will continue to operate. Flor, which took its cues from the buvettes of Paris and the pintxos bars of San Sebastián, was led by head chef Pamela Yung, who was also instrumental in the launch and creative direction of ASAP Pizza, the pizza takeaway brand that operated out of the Flor site at various intervals during the pandemic. JKS, which backed Flor, said the Borough Market site on Bedale Street 'remains within the JKS family', suggesting the group plans to launch another concept in the space.
- Kenny Atkinson's follow-up to his highly-rated Newcastle restaurant House of Tides will offer a more intricate tasting menu to just 14 guests when it opens this spring. Announced last year, Solstice will be located in the building next door to House of Tides that once housed he and his wife Abbie’s Bib Gourmand-winning Violets Cafe, which closed due to the pandemic. The restaurant is likely to launch in April and will initially be open Tuesday to Friday evenings only to improve work life balance for staff and to allow Atkinson to continue to support the team at House of Tides at its peak times. The price of the tasting menu has yet to be finalised but is likely to cost around £150, around a third more than the one served at House of Tides. Solstice's menu will change every day according to the availability of produce and won’t be given to guests until the end of the meal. The restaurant will be staffed by up to four chefs, a restaurant manager, a sommelier and a commis waiter.
- Cardiff-based Lab 22 has been named the best cocktail bar in the UK by an academy of drinks experts at this year's Top 50 Cocktail Bars awards ceremony. Located above a bakery, the experimental Lab 22 has jumped up 32 places in two years. The bar, which is overseen by award-winning head bartender Max Hayward, is known for its creative approach to drinks with menus that follow different themes. Previous ones have taken inspiration from the accomplishments of scientists while the current drink list is inspired by ‘the unexplored ideas and phenomena which humanity has yet to conquer’.
- Hawksmoor has achieved its target to become a carbon neutral company some 11 months earlier than initially planned, and is now setting its sights on becoming a net zero company. The high-end steak group, which currently has nine UK restaurants plus a further site Stateside in New York, announced plans last year to become carbon neutral by the end of 2022. Now founders Will Beckett and Huw Gott, working with Hawksmoor's head of sustainability Ellie Besley-Gould, have achieved this target ahead of schedule. Working with Net Zero Now and The Sustainable Restaurant Association (SRA), Hawksmoor has not only offset all its carbon emissions, but also started implementing practices to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions and become a net zero company by 2030.
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