Is Angel Oversaturated with Restaurant Property?

Angel, from Pentonville Road up to Highbury Square, is packed full of restaurants of all shapes and sizes. With the prospect of new developments in Angel Central on the horizon, Restaurant Property sets its sights firmly on this thriving restaurant and leisure village.

Here, from take-aways to artisanal cafes, our Restaurant Property experts ask whether Angel restaurant property has reached full capacity.

Angel Restaurant Property

Angel – and Upper Street in particular – is one of the most densely populated leisure property clusters. The area is affectionately known as Supper Street, and N1 is now known more for this culinary quagmire than for its socialist journalists or boutique fashion outlets.

The north of the area tends to see more independent operators and fine and formal restaurants. To the south of the area, large chains rub shoulders with smaller, hipper operators like Bario Bar and Breakfast Club.

Angel Central

Straddling Liverpool Road and Upper Street is Angel Central, the popular retail and leisure centre with the iconic angel wings sculpture in the courtyard.

Angel Central boasts a range of property stock, from small boutiques to large leisure spaces. Bella Italia, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Wagamama currently reside in the centre, as well as a Vue cinema and North London’s O2 Academy.

These last two assets give the centre great potential for those operators looking to sell to teenagers and students attracted to the area by cinema blockbusters and popular bands. There is also the 4,000 sq ft JD Wetherspoon pub, The Glass Works. There is news that this is to be redeveloped.

Succeeding in Angel

Most restaurant hubs emerge by virtue of being around high footfall and other leisure retail property.

These factors kick-started Angel’s food scene, but the area is special in that now it is well established as a foody destination in its own right. This is the place where new restaurants offering exciting new tastes and experience can really thrive to the benefit of owners and restaurant property landlords.

Star Operators

A great example of this is Vintage Salt. (Formerly called The Fish and Chip Shop.) Started by Des McDonald, previously of our partners Caprice Holdings, Vintage Salt takes all that is great about the high street chippy and adds a high-end twist. Three courses of posh seafood and champagne comes in at around £30pp.

Further south is a marvellous cluster of Ottolenghi, La Petite Auberge and Le Mercury. But it is the latter two which gives us a hint that Angel is not at the point of saturation.

La Petite Auberge is a charming French restaurant serving cuisine classique to a high standard at a good price. Le Mercury is a charming French restaurant serving classic French dishes at slightly better prices.

There is very little to choose between these two fine restaurants (that many high streets would be lucky to have) save the former has the interior of a rural French hostel and the latter that of a stylish French townhouse. And yet they are both thriving despite the fact that, should Le Mercury chop an onion, La Petite Auberge’s eyes would start to water.

This is the sheer demand for quality food that Angel attracts. The point is driven even further when you consider that Le Mercury has also opened a second kitchen on the same road, with the same menu.

So is Angel Saturated?

Ultimately, no. And the reason is simply that the reputation, transport links and variety inherent in the area is such that it can pull in enough customers to support the unusually high volume of eateries.

Angel’s loyal foodies are always looking out for something new, and the lesson to learn from the success stories above is that the pioneering restauranteurs certainly can germinate (and make a profit) quickly if they combine a strong new restaurant concept with exceptional execution.

The Northern Line, 43 and 4 busses and intersection of Pentonville Road all mean that Angel is assured excellent footfall until jet packs are invented. Further, now that the area is so established as the place to eat, it will take a Byzantine plot to shift power away from this Rome of restaurants.

To talk about finding the right property among this restaurant bonanza, speak to us today on 020 7935 2222 or email sales@rparchive.thisisthetreedev.com.

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