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Indian restaurant and takeaway group Bombay Bicycle is to open eight
new sites - one of them a restaurant - in London by the beginning of March.
A 90-cover restaurant and takeaway, serving the company's same
'home-style' Indian menu as its existing sites, will open in Chelsea
in less than six weeks.
Bombay Bicycle will also add takeaways, which it calls delivery
kitchens, to its three existing restaurants in Balham, Holland Park
and Hampstead.
The remaining four sites will operate as takeaways and will open in
Crystal Palace, Kennington, Streatham Hill and St Paul's.
Maurice Abboudi, operations director for Bombay Bicycle said,
"Bombay Bicycle is a tremendously strong brand name, whose focus
has always our customers. We have always had great feedback from them
particularly as our food is traditional with just the right hint of
modernity about it and prepared with love and care."
Bombay Bicycle, which currently operates 15 delivery kitchens in
London, was bought by Gourmet Restaurants from Clapham House Group
for £4.4m in July 2008 before being taken over by V8 Gourmet in
January 2009.
V8 Gourmet, also owner of Tiffinbites and Vama, said despite the
'harsh economic conditions' it had experienced 'a tremendously
successful year' which meant it could focus on expanding the Bombay
Bicycle brand.
Vama will stop trading at its famed Chelsea site with the final day
of business on Saturday 30th January, the site was refurbished and
launched as a brand new Bombay Bicycle restaurant and delivery
kitchen unit, opening on Wednesday 10th February.
Ever since brothers Andy and Arjun Varma opened Vama in 1997, the
restaurant has been at the heart of Indian fine dining, with everyone
from Chelsea locals to the great and the good across the UK and
beyond, to royalty, the international jet-set, along with stars from
Hollywood to Bollywood, frequenting this well-loved institution.
However, it is now time for a change and Vama is relocating to a new
site in central London.
"In order for Vama to be able to meet client demand and
with new developments in our business," said Arjun Varma,
Managing Director of V8 Gourmet Group, "we have had to seek
larger premises for the existing Vama restaurant. We have therefore
decided that Vama be moved to a new high profile West End location.
We are proud to be replacing the vacated site by a Bombay Bicycle
restaurant and delivery kitchen, which is not far from our other
Bombay Bicycle sites such as those in Balham, Hampstead and Holland
Park. These are very exciting developments for us and the many
followers of Vama cooking need not worry, we'll be back soon!"
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