The very last ’empty shop’ in Clapham Junction following the Covid pandemic is coming back in to use. Moss Bros used to have a store next to the way in to Clapham Junction station – which was rather handily placed for them as their headquarters was in the offices above. It did a busy trade in hiring suits and formalwear, but also sold a wider mix of clothes to the crowds of people passing by every day. The formalwear trade was hit particularly hard by the pandemic, and the store closed as part of plans to radically slim down the store estate in a bid to keep the company alive – which seemed to work, as the company came out the other end and has even started to open a few new stores.
What was maybe more unusual is that part of the premises then sat empty for about for years. It was quickly split in two, and the first part quickly became Wasabi. The other half, several years later, is now set to become a new burger restaurant, Fat Phill’s, whose flagship offer is a ‘smash burger’ (made by smashing the ground beef onto the grill with a spatula, to give a sear on the outside of the meat, to lock in juice and flavour). They also offer loaded sandwiches, Philly cheesesteak fries, and juicy chicken tenders – all made fresh to order in an open kitchen.
Fat Phill’s was founded by Armin Vahabian, an Iranian immigrant to the Netherlands and a father of three. As Forbes reports, after getting a taste of an American burger on a visit to the US, he set out to bring that flavour home. He founded Fat Phill’s in Amsterdam in 2019, without any initial investors, and he grew it quickly: within five years he was running a chain with 17 branches. It’s clearly worked pretty well, with over $16 million in revenue in 2023.
The chain’s fast growth in the Netherlands has been helped by several enthusiastic franchisees; and the business is now planning to enter the UK market, also via a franchise agreement. Fat Phill’s UK venture will be led by a firm called Freshly Baked Ltd, who are also the people behind Auntie Anne’s pretzels, who have just under 40 stores across the UK and Ireland (the nearest to here’s a kiosk in Hammersmith). The chain is initially aiming for ‘busy London high streets’, and Clapham Junction is one of the first three UK branches. This feels like a decent choice of location, a very busy bit of the town centre, right outside a very busy railway station. Fat Phill’s aims to go on and develop around 100 branches in the next 10 years, and are currently looking for people wanting to run franchises around the UK.
The Clapham Junction branch will be quite small – maybe 1,000 square feet – with a few tables, one larger shared table, and an open kitchen with a big grill; they are presumably also aiming for a reasonably large takeaway & delivery offer.
There’s currently a planning application in for some very minor works to support the conversion of the premises from what was half of a clothes shop to a restaurant, mainly including new signage, some vents and extraction equipment at the back (planning case 2024/1726 at wandsworth.gov.uk/planning if you’d like to see or comment).
This article was originally published on lavender-hill.uk.
