A Tyneside tech entrepreneur and a leading chef have joined forces to create a new restaurant group, with plans to open a raft of regional venues.
Chef Nick Grieves is days away from opening Ophelia in Gosforth, a new sister venue to his popular Jesmond venue The Patricia, which has already garnered rave reviews from peers including the likes of Simon King and Terry Laybourne, following a week of launch events. And the French-style neighbourhood bistro – based in the former M Steel Cycles shop – is set to be the first of several new foodie destinations Mr Grieves will launch, alongside business partner Dan Smyth.
While Ophelia is just opening, the pair created new company GRDY Restaurant Group in October 2021, a number of years after Mr Smyth, a frequent diner at The Patricia, told of his ambitions to invest in hospitality, having spent his entire career working in the tech industry. Mr Smyth founded gaming studio Bede Gaming in 2012, growing it from a one-man operation to a multimillion-pound turnover business and major employer in Gosforth.
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He exited the company following a significant takeover deal in 2020. Mr Grieves, meanwhile, first opened The Patricia in December 2016, launching his own business after spending time in Michelin-starred restaurants in London. He had originally started out in construction, but quit to teach himself how to cook.
The restaurant has had praise heaped on it by leading food critics, such as Marina O’Loughlin who described it as “a little belter” in a Guardian write-up. Having successfully navigated the pandemic – keeping regulars satisfyingly fed with its The Patricia at Home enterprise in lockdown – Mr Grieves said the time was right to open the new group’s new restaurant.
Mr Smyth bought the old cycle shop around 18 months ago, and after a lengthy wait to secure ‘change of use’ permissions and a drinks licence, more than £500,000 has been invested the building. Ophelia, which has 34 restaurant covers and nine at its bar, officially opens on Bowsden Terrace, Gosforth, this week. 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.
Mr Smyth 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 we 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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