Openings: Harvester signs to Liverpool’s Central Village

The 4,400 square feet Harvester site will be spread across two levels and sits alongside branches of Cosmo and Prezzo. Zouk Tea Bar and Grill, Handmade Burger Company, Chiquito, Costa Coffee and Frankie & Benny’s are among the other confirmed names. The Central Village project is due to open in 2013. 

The ranks of Peruvian restaurants in the capital will grow again with the launch of LIMA, a concept mixing traditional and contemporary food from the country. It will open on Rathbone Place in Fitzrovia in early July.

Italian coffee giant Lavazza has opened its first own-brand unit in the UK at the Parkway shopping centre in Newbury. The 3,500 square feet Lavazza Espression unit will open later in the summer and will sell food as well as coffee and Lavazza’s machines and coffee beans. Lavazza is a popular supplier to many restaurants, bars and cafes, and its move to set up on its own in the UK will be followed with interest.

D&D Restaurants is to open Fishmarket, a fish-based restaurant in the Old Bengal Warehouse on New Street. It is scheduled to open by late summer.

Caravan, the Exmouth Market restaurant and bar concept, is to open a second site in the Granary Building between King’s Cross and St Pancras International. The venue, with 80 covers inside and 40 out, will open in July, further adding to the dining offer in and around King’s Cross.

Bravo Inns has picked up two pubs—the Albion in Clayton-le-Moors and the Sun and Stars in Chorley. They will re-open after refurbishment in July and August respectively, pushing Bravo’s estate to 30.

Absolute Pubs, the Middlesex and Surrey-based pub company founded by Sarah and Simon Bailey, has picked up its fourth pub—the Flower Pot in Sunbury-on-Thames. The Brakspear tenancy will open in August after a £200,000 refurbishment. Absolute is also launching a new marketing campaign including a customer loyalty scheme across the four pubs, which include the Kings Arms in Hampton Court, the Bell in Hampton and the Waggon and Horses in Surbiton as well as the Flower Pot.

The San Carlo group is to open a new venue in Birmingham. Fumo, a Venetian-themed tapas bar similar in concept to its fast-growing Cicchetti formula, opens next to its San Carlo branch on Temple Street this week. It follows news that San Carlo is to take Cicchetti into London’s West End.

Jason Atherton is to launch a restaurant in Singapore based on his acclaimed Pollen Street Social. Pollen will be located in the Gardens by the Bay South.

Three-strong sushi chain Tsuru Sushi is to launch a new ramen-based concept on Dean Street in Soho. Tonkotsu Bar and Ramen will succeed the Café Creperie on the spot in July. Tsuru Sushi currently operates at Mansion House, Bishopsgate and Bankside.

Danish concept MASH—Modern American Steak House—is to open its first UK restaurant on the Crown Estate’s Quadrant 3 Brewer Street development. MASH is inspired by US steakhouses and runs three restaurants in Denmark.

Bulldog Hotel Group has re-opened the historic Talbot in Oundle, Northamptonshire, as what it is calling a “new generation” coaching inn after a £1.3m investment. The offer combines accommodation with elements of  a pub, restaurant, coffee shop and patisserie.