D&D London, the Des Gunewardena-led group, has further strengthened its management team with the appointment of Michael Farquhar as its new operations director, MCA understands.
Farquhar has 20 years of broad-based hospitality experience in hotel, resort, banquet, cocktail bar, night club, private club, lounge and restaurant operations in Denmark, Switzerland, China, the US, the UK, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and Southern France.
He was previously global operations director and global F&B director for the Singapore-based KU DE TA.
Early this week, it was reported that D&D had submitted plans to open a new Japanese restaurant called Issho in Leeds. The new site will open at roof-level at the new Victoria Gate scheme in the City. Issho, which means together in Japanese, will be a bar and restaurant where both hot and cold food is served. It will become D&D’s first Japanese restaurant.
Earlier this year, D&D revealed it would begin expanding its Bluebird cafe business, which has operated from a site in Chelsea for more than 20 years. The company has signed a deal with property developer Stanhope to take a prime site in the former BBC Television Centre in west London.
Gunewardena said that the Bluebird expansion plans were progressing well, adding that the company was in advanced talks for two further sites, one in the West End of London and one overseas, which is believed to be in New York.
