A RESTAURANT group is opening new sites in Boscombe and Christchurch after buying up another business.

Aviary Hospitality, which is behind Chicken & Blues and Flamingo Cafe Bar, says the acquisition of the James & White Group will create around 50 jobs.

The former James & White Group site in Church Street, Christchurch, will become the third Chicken & Blues restaurant, while the James & White Group premises on Boscombe Spa Road will be the second Flamingo site.

Aviary Hospitality says the move will take its total staff to around 125 and it is in talks with “a number” of the existing James & White Group staff.

Joshua Simons, who co-founded Aviary Hospitality with Steve Crawford, said: “We know Chicken & Blues is a resilient brand that’s built a big fan base locally. We’ve had callouts from Christchurch residents and workers to bring Chicken & Blues to Christchurch for quite a few years but we had to wait for the right site to come along.

“Then with Flamingo, if it can be as busy as it is in what can be considered a secondary location in Winton, then we think we’ve got some great potential to take it to an area like Boscombe Spa by the beach – more seasonal potentially but a great location for this Miami-inspired all-day cafe bar.”

Chicken & Blues currently has sites in Ashley Cross and Winton. Using the slogan “Mama’s home cooking”, it is based around barbecued chicken, served on the premises or for takeaway or delivery.

The addition of the Christchurch restaurant will enable it to offer deliveries to the whole of Christchurch via Deliveroo.

“We’re being offered opportunities for Chicken & Blues in other cities and towns every week,” said Mr Simons.

He said the next steps for the brand “might be to go to Southampton, Winchester or Portsmouth and try more foreign territory for us”.

Flamingo, whose existing site is in Winton, has the slogan “From breakfast to bedtime”, with food and drink served 9am-11pm every day. Mr Simons said it was “quite causal” but “quite stylish in its appeal and environment, so it appeals to a multi-generational crowd”.

“If I was to compare it to anything, you’d say Loungers group, which has got Arcado Lounge, Ludo Lounge, Conto Lounge. They’ve got 200-odd sites nationally but they’ve got five or six locally,” he said.

He hopes to have the new Chicken & Blues open in mid-February and Flamingo by April or May.

He said of the choice of sites: “We’ve looked at Bournemouth town centre. We’ve been offered sites there. We had a deal agreed on a site in the town centre last year which fell through. I wouldn’t rule out the town centre in the future but I think there’s some really cool stuff happening in the peripheral little conurbations and neighbourhoods – the Southbournes, the Westbournes, the Wintons, the Ashley Crosses.

“I think these are really hustly and bustly neighbourhood areas where you’ve got 10,000, 15,000, 20,000 residents and workers and a bit of shopping going on and a bit of nightlife.  We sit well in those markets because we can get nice sites, the overheads are nowhere near what they are in town centres and you can develop a nice regular crowd of residents and locals as opposed to relying on tourists or shoppers in the town centre, which as we know is very up and down in its appeal and footfall throughout the year.”

READ MORE: Chicken and Blues co-founder on why they won’t be opening in BH2

A spokesperson for James & White said: “After well over 10 years of James and White in Christchurch and Boscombe Spa, the time has come for us to pass the baton as we move onto other projects.

"We were keen for these legacy sites to end up in the right hands – as such, we’re delighted that Joshua and Steve can continue to grow their exciting concepts across the region. Thank you to our customers for their loyal support over the years."