The owner of The Patricia restaurant in Jesmond is this week launching a sister venue in Gosforth as part of a new hospitality partnership with a successful entrepreneur.
Nick Grieves first opened The Patricia in December 2016 having returned to the region to launching his own business, fresh from working in a number of Michelin-starred restaurants in London. The restaurant has won praise from his the region’s foodies, his peers and food critics alike, with The Guardian describing it as “a little belter”.
Two years ago Nick set plans in motion to open a second eaterie, with plans to turn the vacant M Steel Cycles shop into a restaurant. Now those ambitions have come to fruition, through the opening of new neighbourhood French bistro Ophelia – and the restaurant is set to be the first of a number of regional venues as it marks the first to open through a new partnership between Nick and technology entrepreneur Dan Smyth.
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The open plan Ophelia specialises in fine French food and has 34 covers, all of which can watch on as Nick and the team prepare their food, as well as nine in an adjoining bar area. Sommelier Anna Foster, formerly of Michelin-starred Hjem, has also joined the team.
Ophelia may only be opening now, but Nick and Dan launched their plans in October 2021 with the incorporation of new company GRDY Restaurant Group. Dan had been a frequent diner at The Patricia, and told Nick of his passion for hospitality, having spent his career working within the tech sector. Dan founded gaming studio Bede Gaming in 2012, growing it from a small operation to a multimillion-pound turnover business in Gosforth, before exiting the company following a significant takeover deal in 2020.
Dan bought the old cycle shop around 18 months ago, and after a long wait to secure ‘change of use’ permissions and a drinks licence, more than £500,000 has been invested the building to create Ophelia. More than 200 people have already booked in for its first sittings.
Their plans include the opening of a neighbouring top notch ‘greasy spoon’ called Cafeteria, a 35-cover which is due to open in March, serving up breakfasts prepared by the Ophelia team. From there, they have a number of other buildings in on their radar for other foodie enterprises, which could bring on board other emerging businesses.
Dan said: “Nick seems to cook for the best chefs in the North East, he’s too modest to say it himself but all the top chefs seem to end up in The Patricia, whether it’s for Christmas parties or just a Monday night, it’s where they all head to. I can’t think of many restaurants that can say the same thing. I live a five-minute walk from the restaurant and I’ve always been keen to support Nick with his dreams of expanding The Patricia. Nick’s eye has always been on the incoming neighbourhood, where things are more accessible and family friendly, and bringing that into Gosforth and potentially other areas away from the city centre has always been a bit of a driver between us.
“The plan is to launch on Ophelia’s success and then we’ll have Cafeteria next door, which will be the next venue to open. Even now we are looking at a few other venues in the Gosforth and Jesmond area which we might actually start to make plans to expand late this year, early next year. Potentially, we might be able to have three, four, five venues if things go well over the next three to four years.”
Mr Grieves said: “We’re really keen on investing in the area – we both live here. It’s a beautiful building and the way we’ve done it keeps it cosy but it’s a good size for what we want to do. We really want to help regenerate the area as well. We’ve got some lovely pubs around here but not many restaurants, so thought it would be a good shout.
“The idea with the group is not necessarily to be me running a load of restaurants, writing up the menus – we’re keen to search out talent we think are great in the Newcastle area who have good pop-ups and street food businesses and need a bit of investment and guidance. We can bring them into the group and expand the business without diluting the quality which lies at the centre.”
He added: “We hopefully have something exciting to announce for The Patricia as well, but we can’t say too much just yet. “
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