Restaurateur Steve Pilling, who runs Manchester’s Damson with such “evident passion”, has cancelled plans for a new city centre restaurant. His Roast Restaurant and Oyster Bar was scheduled to open in Manchester’s historic Courthouse development on Deansgate, alongside the first non-London outpost of Hawksmoor, however the chef decided his concept was just too similar to Huw Gott & Will Beckett’s acclaimed steakhouse chain.

Despite scrapping the plans for his Deansgate restaurant, Pilling – who runs Damson in Heaton Moor and MediaCity as well as The Dockyard pub at MediaCity – says he is still planning another city centre venture. Manchester Evening News reported rumours that Pilling plans to bring his Dockyard concept into the city centre too.

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