Fresh details have emerged about celebrity chef Raymond Blanc's imminent return to the North West with the launch of two new food-led venues. The planned sites In Cheshire come seven years after Brasserie Blanc closed its doors in Manchester.
Brasserie Bar Co has acquired the former Loch Fyne sites on Brook Lane in Alderley Edge and Regent Street in Knutsford. The London-based group's two core formats are the Raymond Blanc-inspired French brasserie business Brasserie Blanc and the White Brasserie Company, a gastropub business that seeks to replicate the standards of Brasserie Blanc in local settings.
The group is creating a White Brasserie Company food-led gastropub in Alderley Edge and a Brasserie Blanc restaurant in Knutsford. It has now been confirmed that the Alderley Edge site is due to open in May with the Knutsford site following in June.
Raymond Blanc is responsible for the creative direction of the menus at Brasserie Blanc. He is also a shareholder and director of Brasserie Bar Co's parent company Abriand.
A spokesman for Brasserie Bar Co told Insider: "We are very excited about the openings of Alderley Edge as a White Brasserie pub in May and Knutsford as a Brasserie Blanc in June."
Brasserie Bar Co first disclosed in February that it had acquired several new sites when releasing its results for the year ending 30 June 2015.
Speaking at the time, Brasserie Bar Co chief executive Mark Derry (pictured below) said: "The recent acquisition of two new sites in the North West, Knutsford and Alderley Edge, is really exciting and there is the huge potential for further sites for both brands. We look forward [to] fulfilling this potential."