/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/65514674/97435034.jpg.0.jpg)
Jamie Oliver’s former flagship restaurant and HQ for his social enterprise, Fifteen, in Shoreditch, has reportedly been acquired by the Barworks group. Propel reports that the company, owned by Marc Francis-Baum, will turn it into a pub.
Fifteen — which opened in 2002 in tandem with a television series that chronicled Oliver’s pioneering chef training programme, deigned for disadvantaged young people — closed in May when the Jamie Oliver restaurant empire went bust.
Oliver had indicated that the Fifteen brand — one of the projects he’d been most proud of and which had been lauded by the industry for its commitment both to offering opportunities and a rigorous training programme — could remerge in some capacity. It now appears that its reemergence won’t be aligned to the Shoreditch flagship site.
Barworks operates 14 venues in London, including the mixed-use Mare Street Market in Hackney, The Duke of York in Haggerston, and The Diner chain.
More soon.