New openings: Soho House joins chicken brood, FlatIron launches

Soho House’s first Chicken Shop will open in Kentish Town on 20 August, selling rotisserie free-range chicken, quartered, halved or whole. It will sit alongside a Pizza East restaurant on the spot. The Chicken Shop joins other concepts specializing in chicken, including Mark Hix’s new Tramshed restaurant and Cass Titcombe’s Roost.

FlatIron, the much hyped and long awaited steak concept, opens from today, upstairs at the Owl and Pussycat pub. The pop-up steak and cocktail project is on Redchurch Street and has building interest via its Facebook and Twitter feeds. The concept promises a ‘craft butchery’ as well as top quality steak.

Ed’s Easy Diner has opened at Cheshire Oaks. The 90-cover site is the chain’s 11th venue.


Scott Hallsworth, former head chef at Nobu, is to open a new Japanese restaurant in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. Wabi London will launch in the autumn and will serve Japanese food with a modern European twist with a separate sushi bar. Hallsworth has previously run his Wabi concept in Horsham, West Sussex. The deal for the 10,000 square feet London site was brokered by Davis Coffer Lyons.

The Craft Beer Co is to launch a third site in Brixton. It will take on the Hive on Station Road in September after a deal brokered by Davis Coffer Lyons. It joins Craft Beer Co pubs in Clerkenwell and Pimlico, as well as Brighton.

Mitchells & Butlers is to build a new Toby Carvery site in Hemel Hempstead. It will accompany a Travelodge hotel there.

Brakspear has bought The Royalist pub in Stow-on-the-Wold, one of the pubs claiming to be the oldest inn in England. It is the group’s first pub in the Cotswold and brings its total tenanted estate to 144 in all. The Royalist had been in administration for the last 18 months, and the deal for it was brokered by Colliers International.