Casual Dining Restaurant & Pub Awards 2016 announces winners
Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Project Pie, and wagamama were among the winners of the first Casual Dining Restaurant & Pub Awards 2016, organised by Diversified Communications UK.
The 2016 winners were presented their awards by BBC Breakfast’s Steph McGovern at a prestigious ceremony on Wednesday 24 February at The Grange St. Paul’s Hotel in London, following the first day of the Casual Dining show. Over 300 industry professionals, including John Hutson, Steve Holmes, David Campbell and Alasdair Murdoch (CEOs of JD Wetherspoon, Azzurri Group, wagamama, and GBK respectively), were in attendance to recognise and celebrate the standout brands of the year across the growing multi-billion pound casual dining sector.
“It’s fantastic to be here, celebrating the success of businesses that are providing phenomenal growth for the UK economy,” said BBC business correspondent Steph McGovern.
Casual Dining’s group event director, Chris Brazier, said, "The casual dining market is thriving, thanks in large part to the fantastic innovations and dedication of operators and the incredible dining experience they offer. The launch of the Casual Dining Restaurant & Pub Awards is a much overdue opportunity to celebrate their achievements and reward those companies who are making a real difference to the growth of this dynamic, fast-moving sector. The calibre of entries has been exceptional, congratulations to all our winners.”
GBK, St. Vincent Street, Glasgow won the award for Best Designed Multiple Casual Dining Restaurant.
“We’re delighted to win this fantastic award. We work with a talented group of designers that individually design every single restaurant. We’re proud of all our restaurants and we look forward to opening many more,” says Keith Bird, chief operating officer at Gourmet Burger Kitchen.
Project Pie, Dundee won the Independent Casual Dining Restaurant prize while Wagamama was recognized and named the Employer of the Year.
“We’re absolutely delighted and thrilled to have won. We’ve grown to 4,500 employees now so it’s a credit to everyone at wagamamas that we’ve got the award,” says Andy Moat, people director at wagamama.
