Signs have gone up and work is being done on a former pub which is set to re-open as a halal steak house.
After much speculation about what would be taking the place of the Grapes pub on the corner of Northgate and King William Street, signs have gone up for a Toro’s steakhouse.
The Grapes pub never re-opened after the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns and was sold by Thwaites last year, with a planning application to convert the pub to a restaurant being approved in August.
The halal steakhouse, which is part of a franchise, is undergoing refurbishments, and it is not yet known when it will be open. The restaurant's website just says the Blackburn site is "coming soon".
Leader of Blackburn with Darwen Council, Cllr Phil Riley: “This is a large and prominent building and it's great that people are bringing it back into use to add to the food offer in Blackburn town centre.”
Blackburn Central Councillor, Zamir Khan, added: “It will be great for the town centre.”
The menu includes the classics of rump, rib-eye and filet mignon steaks, however, they also sell 45-day dry aged sirloin, rib-eye and porterhouse steaks.
Other classics such as surf'n'turf, racks of ribs and an array of burgers also feature on the menu.
The most expensive item on the menu, a whopping 42oz (1.2 kilogram) Tomahawk steak, will set you back a full £50.
They will also have chicken, fish and vegetarian options on the menu, along with desserts, mocktails and a kid's menu.
Toro’s, which was established in 2009, has nine sites in the UK, including Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham and Bradford – with the first restaurant having opened in Leicester, with three more due to open including the Blackburn site.
This development comes at the same time as the £3.8m Blakey Moor Townscape Heritage project, part-financed by the National Lottery, to transform the mainly Victorian Northgate side of the town centre into a leisure quarter of cafes, coffee houses and bars.
From 2013 to 2019 the premises had been operated as a continental cafe known as Liz n Lil's, before the operators of that left.
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