Burger & Lobster to open Manchester restaurant
Burger & Lobster looks set to open its next UK restaurant in Manchester, having secured a site on King Street in the city
The business, run by schoolfriends George Bukhov, Ilya Demichev and Mikhail Zelman, and born out of the Goodman restaurant group currently has six sites in London and is due to open a new restaurant in New York in November.
The Manchester site is part of a strategy that will see the brand - well known for serving a limited menu of high quality burgers made with Nebraskan beef and lobsters imported from Nova Scotia in Canada - open large sites in a series of major UK cities.
Manchester City Council is currently considering a planning application to convert the ground floor of the Ship House Canal building on the corner of King Street and Brown Street into a 167-cover restaurant and 45-cover bar. Design LSM is thought to be overseeing the design of the new site. If the proposals are accepted then the site could open early in 2015.
Meanwhile, the company is also targeting Leeds where it is expected to open a new restaurant in developer Hammerson's Victoria Gate development next year.
Burger & Lobster started life in 2011 and diners are offered a simple menu with a choice of a burger, lobster or lobster roll. Average spend is around the £25-27 mark and director George Bukhov predicted that the company would hit a turnover of £27m at the end of this calendar year, taking into account a contribution from the soon-to-open New York restaurant.
The high turnover means that Burger & Lobster is generating around twice the sales and profits of the Goodman steak restaurant. The business is also thought to be the largest importer of live lobster in Europe and has a storage tank at Heathrow Airport capable of holding 33 tonnes of live lobster.
"The best thing about this business is that we are able to work with some really great people, some fun personalities and just enjoy the journey really," said Bukhov. "We are trying not to be very corporate and just be as relaxed as we can about things."
