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Frankie and Benny’s and Chiquito restaurants likely to close across U.K.
Wagamama owner, The Restaurant Group, intends to dispose of half of its restaurants based at leisure sites — cinemas, retail parks, shopping centres — at the earliest opportunity, to offset a significant loss incurred by the takeover of high street noodle success story Wagamama, falling restaurant sales, and the group’s own £115.7 million revising of property assets. This largely applies to Italian-American chain Frankie and Benny’s and Tex-Mex chain Chiquito, with “at least 124” sites likely to shut, according to the Guardian. Though these closures are to take place as sites become available for exit over an estimated six year period, rather than immediately, this would be the largest downsizing in the casual dining market yet. [Guardian]
And in other news...
- One of London’s most famous bakeries, Violet, will open a larger second site in Hackney.
- The England men’s football team now has Deliveroo’s blue kangaroo on its shirts.
- London porridge specialist 26 Grains heads for Borough Market.
- YouGov’s latest food poll has nothing to do with Magnums and ice lollies. It surveyed Britons on insects, and a third of respondents reckon they’re going to be commonplace in the next decade. [Guardian]
- Good tweet:
The proper way to drink a mimosa pic.twitter.com/ClDqL7hYIJ
— Berto (@madebyberto) August 29, 2019