Ham Holy Burger, an Italian burger restaurant, and its sister company, traditional Neapolitan pizza restaurant Rossopomodoro, have opened their first concessions at John Lewis’s flagship store on Oxford Street, London.
Ham Holy Burger at John Lewis is the first UK restaurant for the cult Italian burger outlet, which has restaurants in Milan and Rome. Rossopomodoro began life in Naples back in 1999 and already operates six restaurants in London and one in Birmingham. It sources ingredients from in and around the Naples region, cooks only in traditional Italian wood burning ovens and employs only pizzaioli (pizza chefs) who come from pizzaioli families to create its authentic pizzas. The restaurants are located next to each other on the third floor and utilise a shared kitchen. Ham Holy Burger has 82 covers, and Rossopomodoro has 114.
Longstanding John Lewis contractor, Conamar, was appointed to manage Ham Holy Burger and Rossopomodoro’s joint team throughout the five-week fit-out project. Its role was to ensure that John Lewis’s quality and safety standards were upheld, especially as the work was carried out in a live environment by a new contractor.
Opening these new restaurants ties in with John Lewis’s move to offer rich and diverse social – as well as retail – experiences in its stores; this follows on from its partnerships with Joe & Juice and luxury holiday specialist Kuoni, which was a refurbishment project that Conamar completed in 2013.
John O’Donnell, Contracts Director at Conamar, said: “Having worked with John Lewis for the last 20 years and undertaken many improvements to its Oxford Street flagship store ourselves, we were pleased to be appointed to help Ham Holy Burger and Rossopomodoro open their newest restaurants here. The programme stayed on track for its scheduled opening date throughout and the finished restaurants are a great addition to the store.”