Monday Bulletin: MAD Restaurants & Summer Streets Fund

Catch up on the latest industry news stories of the week from the CODE Bulletin

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MAD Restaurants

Get ready to hear a lot about MAD Restaurants, a newly formed restaurant group from hospitality entrepreneur Artem Login. You may not know the name but you’ll probably know his family’s photogenic café and patisserie group, L’ETO, now with over 40 sites across London and the Middle East. Login has two ambitious new restaurant projects incoming. First up, MOI, a 150-cover, Japanese-inspired grill with omakase sushi bar and listening room on Wardour Street, which opens in July; then, ALTA, a 100-cover, Basque-inspired Spanish grill on Kingly Court, which opens in August. Open fire and high design are shared themes. MAD has assembled an experienced team that includes Andy Cook (Gordon Ramsay Restaurants, Harrods) as group executive chef; Rob Roy Cameron (El Bulli, 41 Degrees) as ALTA head chef; and Giulia Cappuccio (The Ledbury, KOL) as group operations director.

Summer Streets Fund

London’s restaurants urgently need a good summer. With over five million tourists predicted to descend on the capital this season, the £300,000 Summer Streets Fund, a new initiative from the Mayor of London, arrives not a moment too soon. Aimed at boosting al fresco dining and the nighttime economy, the fund enables local authorities to collaborate with venues to extend opening hours and expand or create outdoor eating and drinking areas. UKHospitality’s Kate Nicholls comments: “A growth-first approach to licensing and regulation that supports hospitality businesses, cuts red tape and delivers what customers want is the right thing for the Mayor to focus on.” The relevant changes must be in place by early summer. The clock is ticking.

Small Plates

• Too Many Critics, the annual fundraiser that sees chefs and critics swap places in aid of Action Against Hunger, is back. This year’s edition takes place 16 June at Roe in Canary Wharf. CODE’s own Adam Hyman will be rattling the pans alongside the likes of Tom Parker Bowles and David Ellis. Tickets, £250.
   
• Manhattan comes to Mayfair this summer, as legendary Italian café Dante, est. 1915, takes up residence at Claridge’s for a month from 30 June. There will be shrimp cocktails, seafood towers, and Chocolate Negronis.
   
• Monica Berg (CODE Hospitality’s Women of the Year 2022) and Alex Kratena of Tayēr + Elementary are opening a new bar, Kyara, at the SLS Barcelona later this month. Billed “a post-modern cocktail bar”, Kyara will offer a personalised “Martini Diagnosis” service.
  
  
• Bad Boy Pizza Society, the popular New York-style pizza pop-up, is poised to open a permanent site in Bethnal Green, this summer. It’s raising funds on Kickstarter so chip in now for slices, suppli, parms, and more.
  
  
• American Express’s Backing International Small Restaurants grant programme is back, with a pot worth £220,000. Twenty eligible independent restaurants in London and Manchester stand to receive £11K each to grow their business. Apply here.
  
  
• Tigermilk, the 10-strong Latin American restaurant group from Paris makes its UK debut on 12 June. The 138-cover Charing Cross Road site promises to be “not authentic, not traditional, just full of life”.
  
  
• Two senior appointments at JKS Restaurants: former COO Joanne Searley becomes MD of Sabor, Berenjak, Plaza Khao Gaeng and Speedboat Bar; former CMO Laura Irving becomes MD of Trishna, Gymkhana, Brigadiers, Ambassadors Clubhouse and 42.
  
  
• To mark Silo’s 10th birthday, chef Douglas McMaster is hosting an event on 17 June with Joost Bakker, the designer who first challenged him to start a zero waste restaurant. Tickets, £145, include a six-course dinner and panel talk.