Friday five: the week's top news stories

By Restaurant

- Last updated on GMT

Friday five: the week's top news stories

Related tags Simon Bonwick The Glasshouse Nightcap Barrio Familia Noble Inns

The forthcoming closure of Kew restaurant The Glasshouse and the release of figures that show that three quarters of pubs and bar face extinction because of the energy crisis stole the headlines this week.

- Renowned Kew restaurant The Glasshouse​ will close next month after almost 25 years in business. The restaurant, which is owned by Nigel Platts-Martin and Bruce Poole, team behind London restaurants Chez Bruce and La Trompette, will run its last service on 17 September. The Glasshouse opened in 1999 and won a Michelin star three years later in 2002, an accolade that it has held ever since.

- Around three quarters of pubs and bar face extinction unless the Government intervenes in the current energy crisis. A survey​, conducted by BigHospitality's​ sister title The Morning Advertiser, found that 70% of operators do not expect to make it through the winter without Government intervention. More than 65% of respondents said they’d seen their utility costs increase by over 100%. Meanwhile, 30% reported a jump of 200% and 8% reported increases of more than 500%. Nearly 80% of operators said they could not afford the increase in energy costs.

- Former The Crown at Burchetts Green chef-patron Simon Bonwick​ is replacing Ruth Hansom as head chef at Noble Inns Group-owned gastropub The Princess of Shoreditch. Bonwick, who ran Michelin-starred Berkshire pub The Crown with his family for almost a decade, will join Noble Inns from the end of this month. He will take over the kitchen from the much-lauded and influential chef Ruth Hansom who, along with the team, has helped it win 3 AA rosettes and be named the ‘Newcomer of the Year’ award in the 2022 Estrella Damm Top 50 Gastropubs.

- Barrio Familia will open its largest bar to date in London’s Covent Garden. The Nightcap-owned bar brand has taken on the former Tropicana Beach Club site on Parker Street and will reopen it in November as a 600-cover venue​.The 10,500sq ft, two-storey venue will house one of the world’s largest tequila-focused bars, according to Nightcap, which also owns The Cocktail Club and Adventure Bar Group.

- A general manager at London-based restaurant group Temper has started a petition​ calling for EU nationals to be permitted to come to the UK to work in hospitality. Thiago Luz Togni is asking the Government to create a special visa for people from the EU countries to come to the UK to work in the hospitality industry for a period of up to two years to help the industry cope with the severe staff shortage.

Related topics Trends & Reports Casual Dining

Follow us

Hospitality Guides

View more

Generation Next

Headlines