THE Cat is getting fatter after El Gato Negro swiftly followed up its plan for an August opening in Liverpool by announcing third venue in the pipeline for Leeds.
The restaurant, continuing the award-winning Modern Spanish template of King Street, Manchester, will open this winter in the former Jamie’s Italian site on the city’s Park Row.
All this sudden expansion leaves a question mark over the group’s projected foray into Middle Eastern cuisine in the Brown Street site, formerly Panama Hattys. Scheduled for this summer, it is now on hold, while chef/patron Simon Shaw’s Ancoats venture, Canto, has modified its Portuguese focus to a more general Iberian tapas one (the octopus, below, is great).
Still Leeds is an obvious move for Simon, formerly exec chef at Harvey Nichols Fourth Floor Brasserie there. When the original El Gato was up in Ripponden, West Yorks he also ran a chicken restaurant in the city called Bird and Beast.
Simon said: “I was born and raised in Yorkshire and got my first real footing as a chef in Leeds; it has always been my intention to return and open a restaurant in the city.
“I’ve spent the last four years looking for the right location and when the Jamie’s site became available it was too good an opportunity to miss. It’s a beautiful building steeped in history and has the most incredible features
“While El Gato Negro restaurants will be consistent in great quality food and service, it’s essential to me that every restaurant has its own identity, its own story to tell. Finding the right heritage building in the right location is key to that, we’ll not compromise on either.”
El Gato Negro is a partnership between Simon Shaw and Mills Hill Developments. They opened the first El Gato Negro in Manchester in February 2016 with Canto following in September 2018.