AN interior design consultancy in Newcastle has developed an idea for a Thai restaurant concept which has been picked up by pub and restaurant giant Mitchells & Butlers.
Dakota House of Design, whose clients include Bannatyne’s and Jury’s Inn, won a pitch to design a new South East Asian restaurant brand and came up with Tuk Cho.
The Jesmond firm, run by husband and wife Peter and Deborah Hodgson, have now seen the first Tuk Cho Thai restaurant open in London.
Managing director Peter said: “We were absolutely delighted to be asked to take part.
“I had lived in Australia and worked in South East Asia for a while and was familiar with the whole street dining and market place experience in places such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia, so this helped shape our design concepts.
“The vibrancy of these small street dining stalls comes from the range of fresh produce on offer with its vivid colours, while the locations themselves reflect a more neutral backdrop of timber and concrete so we went for a similar stripped back approach in our design solution. Mitchells & Butlers did not want the look to be overly themed but as real as possible, so we focused on getting the Internal sensory experience right, rather than focusing on the external appearance. It was a risk, but it paid off for us.”
In early 2011, M&B, which runs around 1,600 sites in the UK abandoned its bid for the Asian restaurant chain, Tampopo, in favour of developing this concept.
Caroline Morris, Tuk Cho development manager, added: “We identified an opportunity within the Asian cuisine category and believe Tuk Cho will allow us to extend our reach to a new group of diners who are relatively young and eat out regularly. We also wanted to be accessible to families with a fresh, healthy but authentic food and drink offer and an adventurous yet accessible range of flavours.”
Dakota is committed to using North East suppliers whenever possible in its work and Tuk Cho was no exception with Jonsigns, Architectural Metalwork, the North East Timber Flooring Company and Artistix, all helping to deliver the concept at the pilot venue in Ealing.
