Australasia set to open

Living Ventures, the company led by entrepreneur Tim Bacon, will open Australasia, its new Pacific Rim pan-Asian, casual fine-dining restaurant and bar, in Manchester's Spinningfields Square, at the end of this month.

Paul Greening, Young Australian Chef of the Year in 2004, will oversee the food offer at Australasia, which will feature a 150-cover restaurant and a 150-cover bar.

Australasia is one of four new businesses Bacon plans to open during 2011 with Living Ventures and through his other vehicle New World Bar Company, including a new coffee deli concept in Manchester and second sites for his Red Door and Alchemist formats.

The new casual-dining coffee and tea house plus deli, which has been developed under the working title of 'Marmalade', will be based in a unit in Spinningfields, near the Australasia concept.

Only opened last December, in the Deansgate area of Manchester, the original Alchemist — the group's cocktail bar with full-service restaurant — has already won plaudits locally and will be joined by a sister site in the city centre later in the year.