All-Day Diners Supplement Airport Plans with Biggest Ever Opening

Grind will open its biggest London site yet in Greenwich, as it continues with plans to expand into airports and train stations. MCA reports that the new restaurant will be on the former site of Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Italian, which was closed as part of restructuring plans.

The site will include a massive 160-cover dining room in addition to a takeaway coffee bar.

The restaurant group, which is owned by David Abrahamovitch, supplemented its travel hub plans with a £750,000 crowdfund, an expansion strategy adopted by Barrafina and El Pastor owners Harts Group and Hoxton deli Monty’s, in support of Coal Drops Yard and a national rollout, respectively. This new site in south east London is part of a 10-strong restaurant rollout matched by the train station and airport plans, as well as ambitious intentions to start selling its coffee in supermarkets. The crowdfunding page — now closed at 255 percent of target — claims that “in the next year, our 200-strong team will make 1 million cups of coffee, smash 80,000 avocados, break 500,000 eggs and serve 75,000 of our famous Grind Espresso Martinis.”

The chain’s all-day, all-night model has its roots in the Antipodean coffee and cafe culture that has swept through parts of London in the last decade. That said, with London’s restaurants adopting increasingly diverse approaches to the no man’s land between breakfast and lunch — approaches more reflective of their evening menus — Grind’s all-day offering has necessarily evolved into small plate territory.

It is understood that Grind’s first station opening will be in London Bridge, SE1.

• Grind secures Jamie’s Italian Greenwich site [MCA/Paywall]