Flagship Sticky Mango to open in former D&D restaurant

Chef Peter Lloyd will be opening a flagship site for his Sticky Mango concept in the former home of D&D's Cantina del Ponte in London Bridge, which closed last week.

Lloyd, the former executive chef of Spice Market at W Hotel London, said the takeover of the site presented a "wonderful opportunity" for Sticky Mango, which he launched in 2016 in London's Waterloo.

He told The Caterer: "The Tower Bridge site will embrace all of the good things from Waterloo. The service will be a little bit more refined and we will have a bit more theatre with our desserts, which we've always been very well-known for."

The site can seat up to 90 inside the restaurant, with a further 70 covers on a terrace overlooking Tower Bridge, with typical dishes to include black pepper prawns; wok fried monkfish and peanut nougat satay.

The closure of Cantina del Ponte, follows D&D's announcement in January that it would shut four of its sites as a result of "economic challenges".

Cantina del Ponte, which opened in 1992 as a 95-cover simple Italian restaurant under Conran restaurants, now joins the fate of East 59th in Leeds, Avenue and Radici in London, and Klosterhaus in Bristol.

Last week, the restaurant group revealed that it had hired advisers to seek further funding for the business after the exit of private equity firm LDC, one of its longstanding investors.

The precarious trading climate is not lost on Lloyd who added: "It's a big gamble for us to be taking on a site like this in the climate that we're in. All of the costs are increasing. There's a labour shortage and customers have less money in their pocket."

Despite this, he stressed: "It's a good calculated gamble because it's such a prime location, and we've never pitched ourselves as an expensive, high-end restaurant."

A soft launch will take place from 24 July, with reservations to open from 2 August. Sticky Mango will also be launching a third site later this summer in London's Islington.