Shaftesbury launches restaurant incubation space in Chinatown

The unit, at 15A Little Newport Street, has been designed by Shaftesbury to host small businesses on a short-term basis.

As part of Chinatown London, the incubator space will focus on operators that create 'authentic East and Southeast Asian products' and is described as being 'perfectly placed to provide emerging brands with high footfall as they look to establish themselves within a destination renowned for championing debut concepts and independents'.

“Nurturing emerging brands has long been a key part of Shaftesbury’s strategy, and Chinatown London has a great history of doing just that; dozens of our existing tenants trialled their concepts here, and many have since taken further sites across the portfolio and elsewhere,” says Julia Wilkinson, restaurant director at Shaftesbury.

The first occupier, Dragon Cat Café, is an independent brand founded in 2018, selling bubble teas and an array of hot and cold Taiwanese snacks.

From the incubator space, they will be able to focus purely on freshly made wheelcakes, a fluffy, filled Taiwanese pancake. Classic flavours such as red bean, matcha, and vanilla custard will be on offer alongside other creations such as Oreo cheesecake, and cheeseburger wheelcakes.

The brand will also explore new flavours from the pop-up space.

“Being part of Chinatown London is something that simply wouldn’t have been achievable for us were it not for the support of Shaftesbury,” says Cynthia Lee, co-founder of Dragon Cat Café.

“Not just that, but they’ve put us in a unit within sight of Leicester Square station, which is incredible, so we are delighted to be enticing the huge number of tourists, workers, and locals with the scent of wheelcakes.”