Ex-Luminar boss plans to bring back pizza concept

Steve Thomas, the founder of nightclub group Luminar, is to enter the restaurant sector, resurrecting the Chicago Pizza Pie Factory brand in the UK, M&C Report​ understands.

The entrepreneur, who stood down as chief executive of Luminar earlier this year, is thought to be planning to relaunch and rollout the concept, which was part of My Kinda Town, the UK restaurant group led by Bob Payton, the US-born entrepreneur.

M&C Report​ understands that Thomas is working with Hotbed, the Milton Keynes based private investor network, on third-party funding for the concept.

It is not clear how advanced Thomas's plans are but it is thought that he hopes to open his first restaurant within the next 12 months, having asked property agents to seek appropriate sites.

Thomas said he had owned the rights to the Chicago Pizza Pie Factory name in the UK for some time but declined to comment further. He is understood to own the name through his company Bryntowy Leisure.

Payton, the founder of the Chicago Pizza Pie Factory, passed away in 1994. He opened his first restaurant under the brand in 1977 and then went on to open Chicago Rib Shack in 1982 and form the My Kinda Town restaurant business.

Capital Radio Restaurants took over My Kinda Town in 1997 in a £57m deal and as a result the original Chicago Pizza Pie Factory was renamed Havana.

There are still a number of Chicago Pizza Pie Factory restaurants across the world, including one in Paris.