Piccolino owner set to launch new pub concept in central London
Individual Restaurants’ first pub, the Last Exchange, will open its doors next month.
“designed to capture both the established weekday City audience and the growing demand for leisure-led occasions beyond the traditional working day”
The restaurant group behind Piccolino, Forbici and Riva Blu will add pubs to its stable of brands for the first time with the launch of new hospitality venture the Publican Estate.
The new brand’s first pub, the Last Exchange, will open in London’s Exchange Square on Liverpool Street next month.
The 7,000 sq ft pub offers 283 covers and will trade across breakfast, lunch and after-work drinks and dinner, with prices for pints starting at £5.
Individual Restaurants’ group food and beverage director Lee Bull, formerly of Soho House, Sushisamba and Hix, has overseen the pub’s menu, which will include battered oysters with Exchange tartare, deep-filled beef shin pie served with mash, greens and gravy, and the Breville, a beef mince toastie served with Lea & Perrins gravy for dipping.
The pub will also offer private dining for groups and a Sunday roast menu, and is “designed to capture both the established weekday City audience and the growing demand for leisure-led occasions beyond the traditional working day”.
Toni Denna, Publican Estate’s marketing and sales director, said: “We’ve always wanted the Last Exchange to feel like the kind of pub you can walk into and immediately feel at home. Somewhere you can come in for a pint, stay for dinner, lose track of time and end up having another one. We’re keeping things simple – properly made British food, good beer, warm hospitality and that old-school feeling that pubs used to do so well.”
The Publican Estate’s launch comes at a time of expansion for Individual Restaurants. The restaurant group’s Piccolino brand opened its first hotel restaurant with Hilton last year and the third outpost of its Neapolitan pizza brand, Forbici, launched in Manchester’s Trafford Centre this summer.
