A Thai restaurant with branches in Soho, Westfield, Spitalfields and Carnaby Street is set to open in Coldharbour Lane.
Rosa’s Thai Cafe, described as a ‘thriving restaurant chain’, has written to residents to say it was signing a lease for 400 Coldharbour Lane. The unit was, until recently, an office for the Granada Cars taxi firm.
The restaurant was once named one of the top 25 in London by Time Out and the owners boast Keira Knightly as a regular. According to a recent tweet by Growth Accelerator, it has a turnover of £2.8million per year.
The business, owned by former digital agency boss Alex Moore and his wife Saiphin, has invited neighbours of the new restaurant to discuss plans at the site on Tuesday July 22 at 5pm.
In a letter sent yesterday, Moore said: “My restaurant … is an independent neighbourhood restaurant business run by myself and my wife. We are very excited about opening a new site in Brixton.”
He adds: “Rosa’s will not be open late and the emphasis will be on good quality food at affordable prices. We are extremely aware of neighbouring residents’ concerns regarding noise, odours and anti-social behaviour and we are committed to working with the landlord and the local community to overcome these issues.”
According to the video below, Moore has high ambitions for Rosa’s Thai Cafe.
Owner Alex Moore said in the video: “Right now we are in good shape, we have four restaurants. All of them are making money under one company and smashing their targets from last year.”
“We have plans to open several more restaurants. We’d like to get to ten and then sell it.”
What do you think of the plans? Leave your comments below, email us newsdesk@brixtonblog.com or tweet @BrixtonBlog.
[…] and wife Alex and Saiphin Moore, has spaces in Soho, Westfield, Spitalfields and Carnaby Street. In July, they said they were “very excited about opening a new site in Brixton” and want to address any […]
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There is a fantastic “Pop Up” antique and vintage shop now open at this location and the operators told me that it is called Emporium Antiques and Vintage – but they had been so busy they had not had a chance to put their sign up! The shop is huge and there were so many “weird and wonderful ” items in there that I found it hard to believe that their emporium was a temporary venture. This should keep the local antique and vintage buffs happy as the prices were very reasonable .
Dear Tim,
Thank you for letting your readers know about our consultation meeting on Tuesday 22nd to discuss local peoples’ concerns relating to our proposed change of use application for the property at 400 Coldharbour Lane.
We look forward to meeting as many people as possible that day to share our plans and listen to feedback.
Rosa’s is a proudly independent restaurant company that Saiphin (my wife) and I founded 6 years ago in Hanbury Street (just off Brick Lane). Although we now have 4 sites please let me reassure your readers that Rosa’s isn’t some faceless chain. Saiphin and I are the company’s majority shareholders and work in the business everyday. We have grown Rosa’s ourselves through hard work and without the help of a private equity firm. We care about it deeply. We do want to eventually grow to 10 UK sites over the coming years but have no intention of turning it in to the next Strada. We may end up selling it one day but we have no intention of doing this any time soon. We have a lot of loyal customers at our existing sites and I’m confident many of them believe our presence in their community is a positive one especially in our Hanbury Street and Soho locations where we have helped bring derelict properties back to life.
Warm regards,
Alex Moore
a.moore@rosaslondon.com
However he tries to spin it, all this is is another chain jumping on the Brixton bandwagon and in the process diluting any individuality the area had.
Four restaurants is hardly a chain. Morley’s Chicken is a chain. Even Franco Manca has more shops than these guys. Brixton is packed full of independents – I hardly think that having a 5th member of a ‘chain’ that probably no one has ever heard of is going to change Brixton for the worse.
Quite. There’s a Nando’s down the street – they have nearly 300 branches in the UK and Ireland. But nobody seems to be complaining about them “diluting” Brixton. How would Rosa’s be any worse? They wouldn’t.
Well MAR is sounding a bit grumpy but I tend to agree with her (or him). We are all grown-up now, we can make sensible choices. If a cafe/shop/business is good then people will go there, if it isn’t they won’t. Why should anyone be sad to see something that might bring a couple of jobs, might bring a few more visitors to Brixton?
I doubt it highly that his wife and himself will run this independent restaurant. What a load of codswallop. Hopefully all the tourists will venture there and as Mark pointed out, Kaosarn will be less ramo!
What a terrible idea! It completely goes against brixtons home grown culture! And with the flats above that site its a nightmare location for a restaurant! Why can’t we have more boutique shops and crafts? Something like a permanent crafty fox space would be fabulous!
Well put your money where your mouth is and open up a boutique shop or crafty fox space then..
Why not leave it boarded up and ‘home-grown’ empty? That way no one gets upset!
“with the flats above that site its a nightmare location for a restaurant”
I live above a restaurant very close by on the same street. Both they and I are doing just fine.
“My restaurant … is an independent neighbourhood restaurant business run by myself and my wife.”
It’s clearly not. He says as much in that video, he’s expanding fast and selling as soon as. Twee statements like this are just patronising.
Still, if it reduces the queues at Kaosarn i’ll be happy!
I’m sad to see another chain arriving in Brixton, it is becoming more and more like Clapham every day.
It is a pity that an independent Brixton grown restaurant couldn’t take the space.
Better to have a shop run as a business generating business rates and employing people than left empty for decay or squatters to move in.