Town & City, the managed pub operator, has launched a new premium concept called Berkeley Bar and Grill, which it hopes to roll out in major cities across the UK.
The first Berkeley Bar and Grill opened last month in Plymouth on the site of a former Ha Ha Bar & Canteen after a £180,000 investment.
Offering breakfast from 9am and food all day, the Berkeley features a more premium food offer than sister brand Slug & Lettuce, including stone-baked pizzas, pastas and risottos, and a comprehensive grill menu featuring 28-day-aged British steaks.
Toby Smith, chief executive, told M&C Report: “The Plymouth site was one of two left over from the sale of the Ha Ha chain to Mitchells & Butlers and allowed us the perfect opportunity to try a new approach with a more premium offer. It is something we think that could be expanded to other city centre locations when the right opportunity arises.”
The other former Ha Ha site in Manchester’s Spinningfields, which was included in the sale of the chain to M&B for £19.5m last September, has since been converted to a Slug & Lettuce.
Smith said the company was continuing to roll out the next-generation look for the 80-strong Slug & Lettuce chain, which it launched last year in Chester.
The new look, which includes a more contemporary design, some booth seating, better lighting and systems, plus a new palate of colours majoring on aubergine (purple-brown), has since been launched at its Canary Wharf, Durham and Solihull sites.
He said that the company, which is currently on-site at its Chichester Slug & Lettuce, hopes to have 12 sites converted to the new format over the next 12 months.
Smith said: “The customer feedback we received was that people visited a Slug and then at around 7pm moved on to another bar. The brand had moved away in the minds of consumers from being a bar where they could stay all evening, we wanted to re-address that balance through the new look and new initiatives such as 2-4-1 cocktails.”
Smith wouldn’t be drawn on the mooted merger of Stonegate Pub Company and Town & City.
Stonegate, backed by private equity firm TDR Capital, completed the acquisition of 333 Mitchells & Butlers wet-led pubs in November with Town & City chairman Ian Payne acting as chairman for Stonegate as well before leaving his Town & City role a month later.
Smith said: “We are just getting on with our target of becoming the best ‘little’ pub company in the country.”
