Friday Five: the week's top news
- Dishoom will open a restaurant in Canary Wharf’s Wood Wharf development this winter bringing its total number of sites to nine. Located close to Hawksmoor’s floating restaurant and Emilia’s Handcrafted Pasta on 13 Water Street, Dishoom Canary Wharf will seat 355 across a double-height 8,800 sq ft restaurant, bar and terrace overlooking the water. Founded in Covent Garden in 2010 by cousins Shamil and Kavi Thakrar, Dishoom has not opened a restaurant in the capital since 2017. The new restaurant will bring it up to six sites in the capital plus three regional sites in Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh.
- Former Nahm chef David Thompson has secured a site in London's Chinatown for his Long Chim casual Thai restaurant, which is expected to launch later this year. Thompson, who currently runs Long Chim restaurants in Sydney, Perth and Dubai, has acquired 9 Horse & Dolphin Yard for the restaurant, which features a c.2,800 sq ft basement level with a small ground floor mezzanine. It also has a pagoda with extensive outdoor courtyard seating leading to Horse & Dolphin Yard's entrance on Macclesfield Street. Long Chim offers a more populist take on Thai food than Nahm, the restaurant with which Thompson made his name, but - as you’d expect from one of the world’s foremost experts on the cuisine - remains authentic.
- McDonald's is to permanently exit the Russian market after more than 30 years of operations in the country. In a statement, the fast food giant said it has initiated a process to sell its estate of 847 sites in Russia, citing the country's invasion of Ukraine as being behind the decision. "The humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, and the precipitating unpredictable operating environment, have led McDonald’s to conclude that continued ownership of the business in Russia is no longer tenable, nor is it consistent with McDonald’s values," the company said. McDonald's decision to leave Russia is particularly symbolic, and comes after the group halted operations in the country back in March. The chain first opened in Russia on 31 January 1990, a move that was hailed at the time as a sign of thawing Cold War relations. Russia now accounts for roughly 9% of McDonald's global revenue and 3% of its operating income.
- Barletta founders Natalia Ribbe and Jackson Berg will open a wine bar and restaurant in Margate's Cliftonville area this summer. The as-yet-unnamed venue will be the pair's first permanent venture and will be inspired by the intimate wine bars of Paris and the South coast of France. A former jewelry shop, the Northdown Road site will launch in stages with the wine bar element expected to open in July followed by the restaurant in October. The wine bar will have 20 covers inside and 20 covers outside on the pavement. The restaurant is expected to have around 40 covers served via an open kitchen. The pair are also exploring the possibility of extending into the site's south-facing garden.
- Columbia’s Leonor Espinosa has received The World’s Best Female Chef Award from The World’s 50 Best Restaurants. The chef-owner of Leo in Bogotá, Espinosa was recognised as Latin America’s Best Female Chef in 2017. A key figure in Colombia’s food renaissance, Espinosa relocated and reimagined her flagship restaurant last year in the upmarket Chapinero district of Bogotá. At the new venue, Espinosa has crafted a tasting menu with 100% of the ingredients sourced within the country and each dish ‘forming part of a broader Colombian food narrative’. The gastronomic experience is inspired by Espinosa’s ‘Ciclo-Bioma’ concept, which focuses on the country’s varied ecosystems and explores the ways new species can be utilised in the kitchen.
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