Nottingham tapas restaurant brand to expand outside of region

The managing director of Perkins Family, the Nottinghamshire restaurant group, says his company is looking to expand its tapas brand outside of the region for the first time.

Speaking at TheBusinessDesk.com’s Restaurant and Leisure Lunch at Baresca in Nottingham, Jonathan Perkins said he is looking to open new a restaurant in either Leeds or Birmingham at some point next year.

Perkins, who, along with his brother, took over his parent’s restaurant in Plumtree 17 years ago told the audience of business leaders that the Perkins Family restaurants have thrived because they “keep things fresh.”

He said: “Dining out isn’t just about the food any more; we have to offer something different to customers.

“If you look at the news coming out of the restaurant sector over the last few years, then it all seems to be bad news. People have had less money to spend and the amount of private equity money coming into some of the casual dining chains means that they’ve had to open a certain amount of restaurants by a given time. This has meant a lack of due diligence about what diners actually want.

Lee Johnson, Air-IT, addressing the audience

I think some of the bigger chains are far out of touch with what diners are demanding these days.”

Perkins also said he has resisted the temptation to take his Baresca and Escabeche brands towards Deliveroo or any of the home delivery operators.

He said: “We’ve looked at it, but we realised it can be disruptive to diners who have come to one of our restaurants for an experience. I think it could be potentially damaging for our brand if we did team up with one of the operators.”

The lunch event was kindly sponsored by Air-IT.