Barrio Chino owners nab Hugos Bar Pizza site

With the long-closed Hugos Lounge on Bayswater Road set to be reborn as the Flamingo Lounge in September, attention has turned to the equally long-shuttered Hugos Bar Pizza site downstairs.

Good Food can reveal Fei Jai and Barrio Chino restaurateurs Peter Lew and his partner, Nicole Galloway, have nabbed the site. "It will be a Mexican restaurant and bar, but I don't think we'll use the Barrio Chino name," says Lew. "We opened that six or seven years ago and we've changed and evolved."

Lew says the yet-to-be-named restaurant will have a strong seafood focus and regional leanings. "We'll have tlayuda [toasted tortilla] on the menu as a Mexican homage to the site's pizza days."

Designers are being briefed in coming weeks and the Lews are shooting for a September launch in line with their neighbours' unveiling of Flamingo Lounge.