Cairn Group opens new bar in Holiday Inn Newcastle-Jesmond

Cairn Group is to open its latest bar, Zio, at the Holiday Inn Newcastle-Jesmond hotel.

The company owns more than 20 bars, hotels and restaurants across the UK, including the Holiday Inn Newcastle-Jesmond, where it has refurbished the hotel's former bar.

Zio, developed by the Cairn Group's in-house interiors team, is based around the fictional character of Uncle Zio, who left his home in Tuscany to enjoy the café society of Rome and Venice and is now bringing a touch of his homeland to the UK.

It will operate as an informal bar and eaterie from midday until late weekdays and transform into a livelier cocktail lounge with live music and a 2am licence on Fridays and Saturdays. Food will also be served daily until 10pm.

Simon Wright, group operations manager for Cairn Group's Italian restaurant chain Fratello's, said: "Zio is a new concept for the Cairn Group, bringing together the best elements of the company's other brands and transforming them to create a relaxed lounge-style bar, where you're just as likely to see your dad enjoying a beer as you are to see your sister sipping a cocktail."

Zio, which opens to the public at 9pm on 23 March, is the Cairn Group's latest venture in the north-East, following the opening of its hotels at Scotch Corner and Newcastle International Airport in 2011 and the expansion of Fratello's Italian restaurant chain earlier this year.

The group, based in Newcastle, currently operates more than 17 hotels across the UK, including sites in London, Manchester, York and Aberdeen, and recently announced plans to rebrand its landmark site in Edinburgh.

By Neil Gerrard

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