New openings: San Carlo hits the West End; Geronimo pops-up with Calf

The ten-strong San Carlo group will open close to the Crown Estate’s St James’s Gateway development scheme. The Cicchetti restaurant, which is based on a formula of small plates, will be San Carlo’s new flagship, joining its Signor Sassi in Knightsbridge in its portfolio in the capital. 

For more on the small plates trend, see the next issue of Peach Report.

Geronimo Inns will tomorrow (1 June) launch The Calf, a pop-up bar and restaurant at Westfield Stratford. A new relation to Geronimo’s The Cow, which opened with the shopping centre last year, it will serve sharing boards and small plates plus real ales, wines and cocktails and Geronimo’s own cheese, produced in Cornwall and washed in Young’s bitter.

Evans & Peel Detective Agency, a new prohibition-themed bar and restaurant, will launch on Earls Court Road in South Kensington on 8 June. Its menu will feature US-style meat sliders and classic cocktails, while the design takes in a secret entrance and reclaimed 1930s furniture. It is being launched by Chris Peel, who has run a series of northern bars, and Gareth Evans.

Mexican chain Wahaca is to open a pop-up restaurant on London’s South Bank during the Festival of the World in late June. The temporary venue will be constructed from eight recycled shipping containers, arranged to give a two-storey structure with room for 130 diners. The venue will be decorated by graffiti artists.

Fast-growing café and bar group Loungers has exchanged contracts on a site in Torquay. The 3,400 square feet site in the Palm Court hotel development will be in Loungers’ Lounge format.

Brewer and pub operator Bath Ales has launched the second branch of its steakhouse Graze concept in Cirencester. It joins the original in Bristol.

Intertain is to reopen its Liverpool site after a £750,000 refurbishment. The revamp includes a re-design of its Walkabout bar and the creation of a new ‘Beach Club’ on the upper balcony. It is the eighth Intertain venue to be overhauled.

Las Iguanas will open up in Kingston upon Thames in June. It will be the chain’s 27th restaurant in all.