Room’s on fire on king street
Among the new restaurants moving into Manchester in the last year was Room restaurant at the top of King Street, in a former 19th-century gentleman’s club for Liberal politicians.
These new boys came not from London, but from Leeds.
Founders and major shareholders Simon Wright and John Pallagi have been friends since their twenties in Middlesbrough. They decided to match Wright’s hotel and catering background with Pallagi’s sales and marketing experience.
The first Room opened in Leeds in 2002 and they now run four – the latest in Liverpool and London – and have ambitious expansion plan.
‘The idea was to create an upmarket brasserie with a big focus on food, as well as good drinks and excellent service,’ says Wright.
If Room has established a signature style, it would include luxurious refurbishments of dramatic old buildings and classic dishes with a posh twist: bangers ‘n’ mash with exotic sausages, gammon steaks with slow-roasted pork.
Following the Leeds debut, the pair moved on to the famous 1 Devonshire Gardens hotel in Glasgow operated by Malmaison and took on the restaurant below after it was vacated
by Gordon Ramsay in 2004. Room traded there for two years until selling the remaining 18 years of the lease to Hotel du Vin, sister company of Malmaison in the Marylebone Warwick Balfour Group.
The Manchester restaurant opened in November 2005 and is trading 50% ahead of target, Wright says, taking £45,000 a week.
‘It’s done fantastically well for us – our biggest success to date. It’s a beautiful building, certainly unusual for a restaurant as it’s on the first floor,’ says Wright.
‘Manchester is as close as anywhere in the UK to London in terms of cosmopolitan mix and business patterns. A lot of people going out seven nights a week; great business; top football teams; a big student population; Granada, the BBC and all the things that make our industry tick.’
Room spent £400,000 on the Manchester fit-out, including a new kitchen, and pays landlord Bruntwood £80,000 a year for the 6,000 sq ft (557 sq m) space. The size allows 125 covers in the main room, 60 seats in the private dining room and 100 in the bar. Debt funding was provided by Barclays.
Room is the third restaurant to occupy the sumptuous first floor of 81 King Street, following Reform and Hurricane.
In July this year Room opened in Liverpool’s 62 Castle Street hotel and most recently opened as Grille under London’s Hoxton Hotel.
‘We aim to have up to 20 sites in the next four to five years and will then consider all the exit options – sale, flotation – before deciding whether to sell up or continue,’ concludes Wright.