LEISURE

Rosa’s Thai founders Alex and Saiphin Moore are to open a new grab-and-go Chinese-inspired noodle shop called Hoh Sek at London’s St Katherine’s Dock next month. Described as ‘a modern edgy Asian approach to noodles serving authentic broths with a bit of London style’, the daytime menu will feature six main noodle dishes that will be adapted with the addition of more sides for the evening offering. 

LEISURE

Co-founder of Junkyard Golf, Matthew Lake, has confirmed expansion plans with their sights set on two further venues in London as well as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Birmingham, Sheffield and Bristol. The leisure operator, that currently has sites in Leeds, London, Manchester and Oxford has seen over 2.5 million visitors since they opened their first site in 2016. 

LEISURE

VNK and Italian brewery, Baladin have come together to open a new dining concept in the recently revitalised Triangle district in Camden Lock Market. Italian Alley has opened in five restored railway arches and offers five different Italian eateries each one representing a different region or hero ingredient of Italy. 

LEISURE

Market Halls is to open a new flagship venue in London’s Oxford Street on the site previously occupied by BHS.  The third site for the group will have space for 800 covers over three floors with twelve kitchens, four bars, a children’s play area, events spaces and a demo kitchen. It is understood that the group will also open in Intu Lakeside later in the year and have their sights on a few more London locations before expanding further afield.

LEISURE

Following the opening of Gloria's first UK based site, founders of French restaurant group Big Mamma have announced ‘big plans’ for London with a second restaurant on the cards. The hope is that the ‘tongue-in-cheek’ approach will be the difference between them and their mid-market Italian competitors. Opening from breakfast until midnight, the restaurant aims to transport diners to Italy with a ‘capri in the seventies look’.

LEISURE

Taster, a delivery-only kitchen concept that launched in Paris in June 2017 is to open in London following a trial in Hackney. Having worked with a number of consultants, Taster has developed three pan-Asian brands:  Vietnamese Mission Saigon; Hawaiian poke bowl kitchen O Ke Kai and Korean fried chicken brand Out-Fry. Working with Deliveroo amongst others they promote themselves as offering ‘restaurant-quality meals’ delivered direct to the consumer.

Retailers sharing space (concessions or store-within-a-store) is not necessarily a new concept. Historically we have seen a plethora of brands operating under one roof in department stores, which until more recent times has been a successful channel for many retailers. However, with recent market changes, the need for retailers to think outside the box for new ways to share space has given rise to a whole range of possibilities. 

Last week saw our 18^th Retail and Leisure Trends Summit, held at the beautiful BCLP LLP offices at London Bridge. We had some fantastic speakers who joined us to discuss the theme of ‘Driving Retail Intelligence with Big Data’. For those that missed the event, here is a short round-up of the day: