Bloomsbury Leisure, the pub and leisure venue operator led by Jonathan Dalton, is looking at a site near London’s Paddington train station for its beer-focussed Tap concept, M&C Report has learnt.
It comes as the company prepares to open its Manchester Tap, outside the city’s Piccadilly station at the end of next month.
Dalton told M&C Report his plans to open a cricket themed pub had been put on hold after losing out on the Holborn site he had earmarked.
He said: “It was absolutely gutting because we know the concept will work. We have prototype nets down in Bloomsbury Bowling and through Christmas it was unbelievable. People are now booking the function room, which has five bowling lanes as well, just for the nets.
“The problem is that we are looking for something very specific. It’s got to be about 10,000 sqft and needs really good ceiling heights and has to be long. It’s a rectangular site and they generally go to gym operators because they will pay more money.”
Dalton said the company was also close to securing a site for a third Fleet River Bakery café concept, to be called Lower Fleet Bakery.
On Manchester Tap, Dalton said: “We will be drawing very heavily on Euston Tap. There will be 22 beers on tap with a heavy focus on the burgeoning craft beer scene. We will have five or six taps specifically for the local breweries.
“The building itself is fantastic. It was built 1969 and it’s a really cool, mid-century brutalist design. The bar will very much reflect the building it is in. There will be no mock-Victorian styling, no Wetherspoon’s look about it.
“It’s exactly the sort of location we want - close to the station but not in it. We want people to have room to stand outside.”
The venue will trade from 11am to 11pm and will have an off-trade licence as well. Dalton said he had been speaking to pop-up operators to run the kitchen, including a schnitzel vendor.
