Friday five: the week's top stories
- D&D London is set to undergo a sale process, which could value the restaurant group at £100m. LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, which has owned a majority share in D&D since 2013, is understood to have asked corporate financiers at Interpath Advisory to kick off talks with potential buyers for the group. It comes after exclusive talks between D&D and Montecito Equity Partners, which took place late last year, failed to result in a deal. The company has also announced that former Ivy Collection CEO Baton Berisha will become managing director from next month.
- Chefs including Nathan Davies, Adriana Cavita, Mark Donald and Kim Ratcharoen are among those shortlisted in the Chef to Watch category at this year's Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards. The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on 13 June.
- Rochelle Canteen co-founder Margot Henderson is to open her first pub with lodgings later this year in the countryside village of Batcombe, Somerset. The Three Horseshoes is set in a restored 17th century inn will have a bar, dining room and five bedrooms, as well as a walled garden.
- The team behind hit London restaurant Sessions Arts Club is to open a venue on Scotland’s northern coast. Artist and restaurateur Jonny Gent, architect Russell Potter (SODA) and chef Florence Knight will open Boath House, located near the rural town of Nairn, next month.
- Vacant retail units could be repurposed as leisure or hospitality premises under Government plans to 'breathe new life' into Britain's high streets. Landlords will be forced to let out commercial sites that have been vacant for longer than six months under new powers set to be introduced as part of the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill and announced in the Queen’s Speech next month. The proposals would allow community groups and small businesses to take over boarded-up properties in a bid to try and rejuvenate town centres that have been decimated by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
