Trend for eating out leads to glut in restaurant work

A boom on the UK restaurant scene has provided a feast for the design market, with a focus on creative innovation to help make the new eateries stand out from the rest of the crowd.

Gruppo, or the Oliver Peyton Group of restaurants and bars, which is behind London’s Coast and the Atlantic Bar & Grill, is opening two new restaurants in London next year. The first will be Mash London in Great Portland Street, designed by Andrew Martin, who worked with Marc Newson on Coast. The restaurant is set on two floors, and diners will be able to glimpse parts of the restaurant’s in-house micro-brewery through portholes.

Gruppo’s Italian restaurant, Isola, will be in Knightsbridge, designed by Zaha Hadid.

The Livebait Restaurant, owned by Chez Gérard, is to expand from its Waterloo base. A second Livebait restaurant and bar is to open in Covent Garden in December. McKenzie Wheeler acted as architect on the project, following the original Waterloo designs.

Terence Conran’s Orrery restaurant has opened, on the first floor of the Marylebone High Street Conran Shop. The restaurant, designed by CD Partnership, features sculptures and artwork by Morandi.

Restaurateur Mogens Tholstrup, owner of Daphne’s and The Collection, has turned to Morocco for inspiration for his new

Pasha restaurant in Gloucester Road which opened this week. Designer Andrew Norry has worked with Tholstrup on the interior, taking a theme described as “Moorish, mystical and somewhat decadent”.

Aiming for a more minimalist look, Circus has just opened on London’s Upper St James Street, with a warm but no-frills interior by David Chipperfield Architects.

Outside London, one of the more ambitious projects is Sir Peter Michael’s restaurant The Vineyard at Stockcross, due to open next March. The restaurant’s architect was Arc Partnership with interiors by Daphne’s designer Emily Todhunter. It will be based on a Palladian orangery with full-length windows, and natural finishes in stone, metal, wood and plaster.

Features will include a sweeping stone staircase with a balustrade by Alan Dawson, and a fire and water sculpture by William Pye, which will feature jets of flame shooting up from the dark surface of the water.