The multi-award winning Italian restaurant company, San Carlo Group today announces it’s to further expand operations in Birmingham.

The Italian family owned and run group which has 17 leading UK restaurants, including the original and hugely popular San Carlo on Temple Street and Fumo on Waterloo Street, is to open a Fumo restaurant, champagne and cocktail bar at Selfridges in Birmingham this Autumn.

Fumo will be located in Selfridges on the 4^th floor with stunning views overlooking the iconic Bullring. With a nod to the popular and critical success of its Fumo restaurants in Birmingham, Manchester and St Martins Lane, London, Fumo will serve delicious, seasonal Italian small plate dishes to share or eat alone and a feature bar will specialise in cocktails and Laurent Perrier champagne.

The £1m restaurant will be the third Selfridges San Carlo Group restaurant – San Carlo Bottega and Gran Café are situated within Selfridges Exchange Square, Manchester.

The Group’s success has been built on providing original Italian food using the freshest produce, much of which is flown in from markets in Milan and Sicily. It is this passion for food and attention to detail that has seen Fumo on Waterloo Street scoop several awards since its

launch 5 years ago including Best Italian Restaurant at the BFDH Awards and Les Routiers Restaurant of the Year.

A further 16 individually designed venues are located in Manchester, Cheshire, Liverpool, Leeds, Roundhay, Bristol, Leicester and London and further afield diners enjoy San Carlo restaurants in Qatar, Bahrain and Bangkok.

www.sancarlofumo.co.uk

We’re loving the lighter nights, sunshine and all the fresh ingredients that the new season offers and our chefs have been developing menus to reflect the warmer months.

Using the finest produce flown in from the markets of Milan, delicious flavoursome dishes bring a taste of the colourful Italian Summer to every plate.
The San Carlo Group kitchen team, led by Executive Chef Filippo Pagani, has expertly matched vegetables, salads, herbs and fruits such as artichoke, broad beans, peas, white radicchio, mint and parsley and combined them with main ingredients of the highest quality from cod, scallops and seabass to beef and pork.

At Cicchetti Manchester you can now enjoy new creations including:

• Carpaccio of beef marinated in red wine with artichoke and beetroot dressing
• Beef Calabrese with Sicilian tomato tartare and Stracciatella (the creamy part of burrata) from Puglia
• Cod Sapporo – Venetian cod dish marinated for 48 hours with red onion, brown sugar, white wine vinegar
• Spaghetti alla Cipolla – 24 hours in the making, a traditional comfort food with onion and monks beard from Tuscany
• Pan fried scallop with pea and mint risotto
• White radicchio salad with vinaigrette, Italian eggs, bacon and red onion
• Mashed broad bean, Parmesan, mint and basil on grilled bread with matured salted ricotta from Southern Italy
• Black salt baked seabass – whole fillet with peppercorns, lemon and parsley

Sensational new dishes at Fumo Manchester include the ‘Affumicati Fumo’ smoked specials presented under a glass cloche:

• Mediterranean Fishes Carpacci served with crispy seasonal vegetables, mint and olive oil
• Swordfish Carpaccio with Pachino tomatoes, capers and black olives

Fumo Birmingham also boasts new Summer offerings and our recommendations are:

• Oven baked Swordfish rolls filled with mix seafood, topped with fish sauce and served on a bed of pan fried courgettes in balsamic vinegar
• Monkfish loin wrapped in pancetta slices in a butter and lemon sauce served with roasted potatoes.

Book a table at your favourite San Carlo and enjoy the Summer specials – every dish is divine!

Rosso 43:

April’s Cocktail of the Month at Fumo is the ‘Rosso 43’.

A refreshing long drink made with freshly squeezed red orange juice, Spanish vanilla liqueur and topped with Prosecco.

This beautiful aperitif will bring back memories of Summer holidays and sunsets by the sea.

Ingredients:

40 ml Stolichnaya Vodka
25 ml Liquor 43
50 ml Freshly squeezed red orange juice
Top with Prosecco

Method:

Shake and strain. Serve over ice.

Our menus change with the seasons to reflect our food philosophy – using only the best, seasonal produce and allowing those ingredients to shine. Spring Summer is an exciting time for us as our Executive Development Chef Filippo Pagani sets to work creating those new dishes for you to enjoy. Available from the end of April, expect lighter, colourful dishes bursting with flavour, featuring artichokes, asparagus, spinach, wild garlic, lemons, tomatoes and lamb.

Fumo Sound is back at the end of the month with performances on Easter weekend in Manchester and Birmingham.

DJ Myles Langley and DJ Ben Martin will provide sets at both venues on Saturday 26 March before handing over for live sax sessions from ‘The Sax Guy’ and ‘El Sax’.

The saxophonists are really sensational so book your table for cicchetti, cocktails and Spring sounds early.

Fumo Manchester, 1 St Peter’s Square Manchester 0161 236 7344

Fumo Birmingham, 1 Waterloo Street, Birmingham 0121 643 8979

We’re celebrating another award-winning month with our San Carlo restaurant in Leeds city centre and Cicchetti at Piccadilly, London both claiming industry accolades.

San Carlo in Leeds won ‘Best European Restaurant’ in H&N Magazine’s Eat Awards.  Voted for by the public, the Yorkshire lifestyle publication recognised our South Parade restaurant as outstanding in its category and presented the winning certificate to General Manager Angelo Plazzi earlier this month.

In the Capital, Cicchetti Piccadilly was successful in Prestige Events Magazine’s COOL Venue Awards.

The finals for the annual event, which is currently in its 9th year, took place at Cafe de Paris on Thursday 3rd March.

Our Cicchetti bar and restaurant on St James’ was shortlisted in the ‘COOLest Italian’ category, beating others including Theo Randall, The River Cafe and Jamie’s Italian Restaurants to the coveted top spot.

We now have our fingers crossed for the Yorkshire Evening Post Oliver Awards which take place on Monday 21st March where San Carlo Leeds has been shortlisted for ‘Best Italian’.

We’d also welcome your nominations in the Birmingham Food Drink & Hospitality Awards.  Vote for our San Carlo Birmingham and Fumo, Birmingham restaurants here: http://thebfdhawards.co.uk/.

Our elegant Gran Cafe in Selfridges, Manchester has won ‘Cafe of the Year’ in the prestigious 2016 UK and Ireland Les Routiers Awards.

The cafe, bar and patisserie on the lower ground Floor of the designer department store was recognised for consistently meeting and exceeding the Les Routiers’ membership standards and highlighted for its overall outstanding performance, as well as excellent customer feedback and reviews.

Tina Griffiths, Customer Service Executive at Les Routiers UK and Ireland, said: “Les Routiers acknowledges establishments which share a sense of individuality that sets them apart from global chains. Our annual awards are an opportunity to champion venues, such as Gran Cafe, that are well-managed, offer exceptional food and immpecable service.”

San Carlo Group Chairman Carlo Distefano added: “Gran Cafe only launched in August 2015 so we are understandably delighted to be achieving awards so soon after opening.”

Les Routiers brand is recognised worldwide and recommends quality independent restaurants and hotels across the UK and Ireland.

Fumo Birmingham also received recognition with a nomination for ‘Restaurant of the Year’ 2016, an award which the bar, restaurant and late lounge won in 2015.