Italian restaurant chain Zizzi seems keen to return to Chester after the company put forward a licensing application at premises which haven’t even been built yet.
The company has lodged a premises licence application at ‘Market Square’ which will be created at the back of the old Chester Library .
Market Square is part of the £60m phase one of the delayed Northgate Development with work due to finally begin next autumn thanks to funding from Cheshire West and Chester Council.
It will feature a new six-screen Picturehouse cinema, market hall and restaurants around the square as well as within the old library.
Zizzi used to operate a restaurant in Newgate Street, Chester, until it was taken over by Brazilian steakhouse Picanha. Now the Italian chain is seeking permission to run a new 3,052 sq ft Chester outlet with proposed activities to include the sale of alcohol and opening hours of 9am-12.30am seven days a week.
Other restaurant chains signed up to Northgate include Cosy Club who want to open a quirky and eccentric 180-cover venue across the ground and first floor levels of the former library. The premises licence is now in place.
More on the Northgate development
Tapas Revolution has agreed to take a 3,000 sq ft unit next to the proposed market underneath the cinema. Again a premises licence has been agreed.
And a public inquiry held earlier this year was told the council had agreed terms and instructed solicitors on a deal with Wagamama although nothing has been formally announced.
Wagamama, which has a successful restaurant at Cheshire Oaks, is an Asian-inspired and Japanese chain where dishes are ‘whisked to long communal tables’.
CWaC recently selected VINCI Construction UK as its ‘preferred bidder’ to construct the Northgate Development following a Europe-wide tendering process.
VINCI, an internationally renowned company, has been formally appointed to begin work on the £60m phase one project from next autumn followed by construction in 2020.
