Friday five: the week's top hospitality stories
- A bar hidden behind an antique refrigerator in the back of a pastrami shop in Barcelona has taken the top spot at The World’s 50 Best Bars 2022. Located in the Spanish city’s trendy El Born district, Paradiso offers a ‘truly masterful take on the speakeasy, combining technique, precision and creativity with an unwavering sense of fun’. It marks the first time the accolade of World’s Best Bar has been won by a venue outside New York or London. London‘s Tayēr + Elementary took second place while Sips - also in Barcelona - was ranked third on the list.
- Mexican Japanese restaurant Los Mochis will open a second London location next year, at 100 Liverpool Street at Broadgate. Located on the 9th floor of 100 Liverpool Street, the 14,000sq ft restaurant will have a 3,000sq ft outdoor terrace with views of the City and will be the restaurant group’s flagship venue. It will have a ‘tequileria’ serving one of the largest selections of fine and rare tequilas and mezcals in Europe and is due to open in autumn 2023.
- Details have been released about Richard Caring’s upcoming Mayfair restaurant Bacchanalia. The Greek restaurant, which takes its name from booze-fuelled Roman festivals, will employ 180 staff and invite Londoners to ‘indulge in life’s riches and rarities' with a dining room that will feature 2,000-year-old antiques, giant sculptures by Damien Hirst, and a selection of Greek and Roman art. The Italian and Greek-inspired menu will be overseen by culinary consultant Athinagoras Kostakos, the chef and owner of a number of high profile restaurants in Greece including Nōema Mykonos, supported by joint executive chefs Enis Spacho and Theo Zarikakis.
- Former Kitty Fisher’s and Cora Pearl chef George Barson is returning the South West next month to launch a new restaurant in Bath city centre. The Beckford Canteen will be the second restaurant for the Beckford Group, which operates upscale pubs in Wiltshire and Somerset. The group’s latest project occupies a ‘small but perfectly formed site’, a former Georgian greenhouse, on Bartlett Street. There will be around 40 seats inside and a further 40 in the restaurant’s 'hidden' garden to the rear.
- Henry Harris is joining forces with former restaurant director at Rockfish and operations director at Goodman David Strauss to reopen Farringdon pub Three Compasses. The former chef-patron at Racine in Knightsbridge is bringing his classic French cooking to the area with the opening of Bouchon Racine on the first floor of the pub. The 45-cover restaurant will have its own entrance and take inspiration from Racine, serving the classic French bourgeois food for which Harris is known. The ground floor of the Cowcross Street pub will remain as a local pub and is due to reopen before the end of October, with the upstairs restaurant expected to open a couple weeks later following refurbishment.
