A leisure company is expanding its popular pan Asian restaurant brand The Muddler around the North East.
Newcastle based Danieli Group opened the doors to The Muddler on Newcastle’s Grey Street in 2018, offering dim sum, Asian style tapas and more substantial dishes alongside an extensive cocktail list. Its popularity led to the company – which also owns Stack Seaburn and Yolo Ponteland and Yolo Townhouse in Newcastle – doubling the size of the restaurant, having spent months turning people away because all tables were fully booked.
Now the company is looking to transform the former Kalinka bar and nightclub at the corner of Exchange Square in Middlesbrough into a second site. If approved, the venue – in part of Commerce House – will become a 100 seater pan-Asian restaurant and cocktail bar with a private dining area in the domed space on the top floor.
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The ambitious scheme for the Grade II listed building also includes an outside mezzanine level at the back, with additional seating facing onto Exchange Square. If planning and licensing applications are granted it is hoped the venue will open in April 2023.
Neill Winch, CEO of Danieli Group, believes it is a great move and said the company is now looking at other sites across the region as part of its plans to expand into other locations.
He said: “When we saw the investment that has been made in Middlesbrough’s Historic Quarter and the real steps that have been taken to revitalise the area, we knew this was a great location for us. It fits perfectly with The Muddler brand and we hope that we will be something very different to the town in terms of both the food we offer and the high quality of the setting.
”We think Exchange Square is a great spot and hopefully our commitment will be a catalyst to encourage other good quality leisure operators into the area.”
News of The Muddler's expansion comes after the company unveiled plans to open a new Stack leisure and dining complex in Lincoln, the first in a planned national roll out. The first Stack in Newcastle was closed to make way for construction of the new HMRC offices, but a second site in Seaburn has been drawing in the crowds since April 21, while a pop-up site is also now planned for a new location in Newcastle city centre.
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