Côte Brasserie has confirmed it has acquired the site of Hale Grill, which announced its sudden closure yesterday.
As exclusively revealed by Altrincham Today, owner Living Ventures has decided to close the Ashley Road restaurant, a fixture in Hale village for over a decade.
And we can now reveal that fast-growing restaurant chain Côte, which describes itself as being “inspired by the brasseries of Paris”, has definitely acquired the prominent site on the corner of Westgate and is targeting an opening date of January 2017.
A spokesperson told us: “We have indeed agreed a deal to acquire the site. We hope to start on site next month with a view to opening the restaurant in January 2017.”
Staff at Hale Grill were told yesterday that the restaurant would be closing with immediate effect.
It followed what owner Living Ventures said was “a strategic review”.
A statement read: “Living Ventures can announce that The Hale Grill has ceased trading as of Monday 19th September, the closure follows a strategic review of the Blackhouse brand. The Hale Grill has had 10 great years in Hale and Living Ventures are confident that all of the team from the restaurant will be re-housed in other Living Ventures venues.”
Côte was launched by a quartet of investors, including serial restaurateur Richard Caring, in Wimbledon in 2007 and grew to 45 sites before being sold to Close Brothers Private Equity in 2013 for a reported £100m.
It continued to expand and in 2015 was sold for a reported £250m to current owner, private equity firm BC Partners, in July 2015.
Last year it reported a 27.3% increase in turnover to £108.1m for the 12 months to August 2015.
Côte’s menu offers classics dishes such as steak frites, moules marinières and corn fed chicken from the heart of rural Brittany, alongside lighter dishes such as tuna nicoise. Crème caramel and crème brûlée are house specialities for dessert. Restaurants are usually open all day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Most of its restaurants are in London (over 40) but it does have existing sites in Manchester and Liverpool.
