Empty Scarborough premises to be renovated by national restaurant chain

A national bar and restaurant chain has been granted planning permission to renovate an empty premises on Scarborough’s seafront.

Last year, Loungers UK Limited confirmed it intended to move into the vacant Pizza Express building in Sandside to open the latest in its Lounge franchise of bars.

The company, which also runs the Cosy Club brand, has now been granted a premises licence by Scarborough Council that will allow for the sale of alcohol seven days a week from 10am until 00.30am.

It has also been granted planning permission to make alterations to the listed building to get it ready to become the Marisco Lounge.

Pizza Express closed its Scarborough branch in August last year five years after opening.

Speaking in December, Loungers property director, Tom Trenchard, told the Local Democracy Service that the company had targeted the town after the building became available.

Mr Trenchard said: “Scarborough is a town we have admired for a long time and you have what we think is the best unit in town so we were like ‘okay, we can park the operational distance for now and we will take that one’.

“Scarborough is definitely on the hit list and has been for a long time but the whole thing was accelerated by that site coming up.”

Mr Trenchard said that Lounge would offer more throughout the day compared to the building’s previous occupant.

He said: “I think our offer is much more of an all-day offer compared to Pizza Express and it has something for absolutely everyone. In the morning we do a fantastic breakfast for allcomers, great lunch offer, afternoon tea and cakes and then become probably one of the best restaurants in town in the evening.

“So it goes from first thing in the morning to closing time and hopefully we can get a little bit of outside seating as well. I think it will make a big impact down there.”

The bar will create around 25 fulltime job when it opens.