Salisbury out to break new bar-deli ground

by The PMA Team

Pub entrepreneur Paul Salisbury is to open a high-street bar-cum-delicatessen concept, Morton's Kitchen, Bar and Deli.

Salisbury is planning to break new ground by creating a bar with a food offering similar in style to the Carluccio's Italian deli brand. The new bar, which will be located in the Dickens Heath development, near Solihill, will offer an upmarket takeaway service, with menu items like spit-roast chicken and wood-fired pizza.

Salisbury said: "It will be like Carluccio's but with more of a bar ­ arguably, Carluccio's closes a bit too early. It will be a coffee shop meets bar meets deli."

The 5,500 square foot bar, which will open in May, will be located in a mixed-use development of shops, office and houses, described locally as a "mini Canary wharf" .

Salisbury, who runs four other pubs in the Birmingham area, is the brains behind Project Orange, the gastro-pub concept being developed by Mitchells & Butlers. Project Orange is a "premium country dining concept", which is yielding great success at the first 11 sites opened by M&B.

The original site, the Cock at Wishaw, near Birmingham, was based on Salisbury's Orange Tree pub, at Chadwick End, War-wickshire. Salisbury has helped oversee the expansion of Project Orange on a profit-share basis.

Of Project Orange, M&B chief executive Tim Clarke has claimed there is "enormous pent-up demand in the affluent commuter belts for the kind of stylish eating experience readily available in our city centres.

"People want this in the commuter belts, in the relaxed atmosphere of a country pub."

Salisbury's wife, Sue, is consulting for M&B on a modernisation of its Brown's brasserie brand.