An upmarket restaurant chain wants to open inside a York supermarket.
Leon, which bills itself as serving ‘naturally fast food’, is planning to put a branch inside Asda at Monks Cross.
“Until recently there was an existing cafe within the Asda store. It served a variety of food and drink throughout the day,” a planning application submitted to City of York Council states.
“Leon are intending to refit the cafe and will provide new seating layouts and enhanced catering.”
It adds: “The new Leon cafe will be accessible from within the Asda store. There is proposed to be an additional external door, which will be dealt with through separate planning application.”
Leon says it has a simple mission – to serve “naturally fast food that not only tastes good but does you good too”.
The chain was founded in 2004 by Allegra McEvedy, John Vincent and Henry Dimbleby. By 2021 it had grown to 70 restaurants – and was then sold to EG Group, the petrol station forecourt operator controlled by the billionaire Issa brothers.
In December it revealed plans to open 50 new restaurants, to include new formats such as drive-throughs, Leon To Go coffee outlets and smaller restaurants on petrol forecourts and at Asda supermarkets.
Glen Edwards, managing director at Leon, said: “For the first time we will be taking Leon across the country, driving regional growth at speed.”
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