Frankie & Benny’s coming to Coleraine

A NEW York Italian-style bar and restaurant is to open at Riverside Retail Park, Coleraine later this year.

The new bar and restaurant is expected to create approximately 35 jobs from management through to kitchen staff, front of house servers, bussers, hosts and bar tenders.

Work has now commenced on site and the restaurant will be situated in the main car park.

The Restaurant Group PLC, the company behind Frankie and Benny’s, expect to open the restaurant in late autumn and the latest addition to the North Coast’s restaurant scene will have space for approximately 150 customers and a bar area.

Frankie and Benny’s, which first opened in 1995, now operates from over 170 locations across the UK.

The restaurant is described as a “fun 1950’s Italian American style restaurant” with booth seating, old black and white photography and a bottle-lined bar in each restaurant.

It offers a menu including New York style steaks, potato skins, ribs, burgers, pizzas, pastas, house specialities and seafood dishes.

Commenting on the latest addition Mark Thallon Retail Partner at the scheme letting agents TDK, said “We are delighted to welcome Frankie & Benny’s to Coleraine and we expect this coupled with the new adjacent 2,000 sq.ft. coffee shop pod will make Riverside Retail Park an even more attractive location for shoppers.

“It is hoped that the addition of further catering facilities will complement the existing restaurant offering and encourage people to stay longer at the scheme”

“We are also working hard with the landlords to add further occupiers to the Park and it is hoped that additional announcements will be made in the near future.

“These additional jobs are obviously much needed in the Coleraine borough particularly in the current economic climate.”