Weekender interview: Director of operations at The Ivy Collection

“Leeds has always been a destination that has been in our minds since we started thinking about expanding, but we wanted to find the right location as this is incredibly important,” says Baton Berisha, the director of operations at The Collection in Leeds. 

“We also found that a lot of people were travelling to our restaurants in York and Harrogate from Leeds, therefore we wanted to find a suitable site for us in the city.”

Early this year, The Ivy Collection announced plans to open a new brasserie in the heart of Leeds and it will do so on September 25. The Ivy Collection’s latest Yorkshire brasserie will be open seven days a week and offer those shopping, visiting, living or working in Leeds with a selection of menus.

Located in the Victoria Quarter on Vicar Lane, The Ivy Victoria Quarter will have room to cater for up to 240 guests as it will be split across two floors, comprising the main restaurant itself, two terraces and a central bar.

Berisha added: “We believe it is a good time for us to open in Leeds now, and we are incredibly excited.”

As with the brand’s sister sites, The Ivy Harrogate and The Ivy St Helen’s Square, the critically-acclaimed Martin Brudnizki Design Studio is consulting on the brasserie’s interiors. Notable features will include an onyx bar, pendant lighting, marble floor tiles, polished parquet panel flooring and leather banquettes.

Berisha said: “The most exciting thing to see is the finished product, as well as the excitement of the customers. We are receiving on a daily basis comments from customers who have eaten at Harrogate that live in Leeds, how excited they are that a new restaurant is coming next door to where they live.

“The Ivy is a strong brand throughout the UK, and for us we also love to see that the guests expectations have been matched when they first walk into one of our new restaurants.”

The Victoria Leeds scheme includes Hammerson’s £165m Victoria Gate development, and between them the Victoria sites have a wide range of dining options including Cau, Japanese restaurant Issho, East 59th and the  Michelin-starred restaurant The Man Behind the Curtain.

Despite opening in a competitive market, Berisha believes The Ivy will still be a great success in the city.

He explained: “Our aim is always to deliver a venue that is stunning and unique. Although we have Ivy’s around the country we feel that all of them are individual with a different look and feel.”

“As for the market, we are confident in our brand hence the major expansion in the past several years. With everything we do we put the guests first. Great food and great service is at the forefront of what we do so as long as we keep that consistency there, we will be successful.”

The Ivy Collection is a group of restaurants, brasseries and cafés, established in London and is now growing regionally across the UK.

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