Ask launches new bar and grill concept

Ask Restaurants has this week announced the launch of a new grill and bar concept and the end of its Nimmo's brand.

The Leamington Bar and Grill will launch on 24 October in the former Regent hotel in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.

The new 150-seat restaurant and bar will serve a range of traditional British dishes, including steak and Guinness pie and fish and chips, at about 17 for three courses.

Ask and Zizzi operations manager Spencer Graydon said the concept had potential for roll-out, depending on its success. "We don't serve any pizza and we have a proper bar, so it's all rather alien to us," he said.

Meanwhile, the pizza and pasta chain has sold the last of its three Nimmo's branded restaurants to a new Oslo-based Vietnamese concept, Xich-Lo.

Norwegian chef Odd-Arne Braute and his wife, Vietnamese-born May Braute, plan to open their first London eaterie early next year in the former Nimmo's site on St John's Street in Clerkenwell.

The 80-seat, midmarket restaurant will serve a mix of traditional and contemporary Vietnamese dishes with an average spend of about £30.

Xich-Lo paid a premium of £45,000 on an annual rent of £72,000 for the site. Property agents Davis Coffer Lyons acted for Ask Restaurants.

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