Karen’s Diner, the restaurant chain where customers pay for staff to insult them, has confirmed the future of its UK sites after shutting down three of its original restaurants this week.
Karen’s Diners in Surfers Paradise, Perth, and Melbourne have all shut their doors after being placed into voluntary liquidation, with the company writing on Facebook: “Unfortunately, all good things come to an end and Karen can’t stay forever! Today marks the closing of some of our Australian pop-up stores.”
The closure of the original sites down under has left some wondering about the fate of the UK restaurants, including Manchester’s closest – Karen’s Diner over in Prestwich, Bury.
Speaking to The Manc, bosses behind the UK and European Operations Team confirmed that the UK sites were unaffected by the Australian closures.
A representative from the UK and European Operations Team said that the company managing the recently-closed Australian sites is just one of nine subsidiaries within the Viral Ventures Holdings Group in Australia.
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“We understand that these short term leases were due to expire and poor management within this company led to this inevitable conclusion,” they said.
Image: The Manc Eats
Image: The Manc Eats
“We accept that Karen haters and Zelus worshippers will look to jump on an opportunity to question the longevity of dinings most outrageous brand. They will be disappointed.”
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The principal group in Australia continues to be rude to all in Sydney’s capital city and the never ending demand globally is ensuring that growth worldwide continues, they added.
“It’s hard to understand the problems that have needed to be dealt with on the other side of the world”, said Paul Levin, part of the UK and European Operations Team.
“However, our UK businesses operate autonomously and despite challenging conditions, we are delighted to report continuous steady growth.”
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The UK and European Operations Team also revealed that they have got their sights set on some new openings here, with a Brighton opening planned for August followed by expansion into Ireland and the Netherlands.
“On Sunday 13th August our next restaurant will be opening on the promenade in Brighton’s Marina. Our next mission then is to be rude to the whole of Ireland and our ‘Experience’ will be landing in both Northern and the Republic of Ireland during October.
“Karens On Tour continues to visit numerous cities in The UK and we open in The Netherlands this Autumn.
“Our millions of social media followers can rest assured that our mission to serve great food whilst being rude to the whole world ,remains firmly on track”.
Featured image – The Manc Eats
Eats
Electrik Bar in Chorlton is giving away 100 FREE frankfurters to celebrate their latest kitchen collab
Danny Jones
We all love a freebie, so we thought we’d spread the good word of the scran lords by letting you know that Electrik over in Chorlton is giving away 100 free frankfurters to celebrate their newest menu takeover.
The popular neighbourhood bar and kitchen on Wilbraham Road in the South Manchester suburb has had a couple of different foodie collaborations over the past couple of years, with local residents Paramogeddon and Four Side Vegan Pizza being the most recent, but now they’re doing hot dogs.
Welcoming their latest vendors Tisch Und Teller, Electrik will be giving away a total of 100 free frankfurters to the first century of people there this evening.
Bringing a taste of Berlin, Bavaria, Frankfurt and more (with a Manc twist, of course) to the popular pub for the Thursday launch party, all you need to do is order a drink upon arrival to get your hands on a free frankfurter sandwiched between a lovely fluffy roll.
Who doesn’t love a hot dog? Especially when they’re giving them away.
As for Tisch Und Teller (TuT), they’ve been serving up German-inspired favourites from the likes of The Shakespeare in Manchester city centre and Nip and Tipple in Whalley Range since September last year, including some very impressive brunches and Sunday roasts.
But the brand just keeps gaining more traction and now they’re setting up shop in Electrik, we’re sure the word will continue to spread – and fast.
Better still, as advertised on the promo poster, not only will TuT now be serving up their delicious food from Electrik every Thursday-Sunday for the foreseeable but the launch party will also live music by local legend and DJing veteran, Abigail Ward of Ghost Assembly.
Free food, pints and top tunes – what more could you ask for on a random weeknight?
The offer will be available from 6pm tonight and, once again, you have to be among the first 100 people to buy a pint to be eligible for a free frankfurter.
Manchester’s new Instagrammable coffee shop is giving away FREE drinks tomorrow
Emily Sergeant
One of Manchester’s newest Instagrammable coffee shops is giving away free drinks tomorrow ahead of the bank holiday weekend.
With another long weekend right around the corner, and much of Greater Manchester and the UK fortunately looking set to bask in the springtime heat, popular coffee chain, Blank Street – which is one of Manchester city centre’s newest residents, with two sites in Piccadilly Gardens, and on the corner of King Street and Cross Street – has decided it wants to help the country “beat the 3pm slump”.
Ahead of the upcoming bank holiday weekend, the chain is inviting Mancs to “meet for matcha” tomorrow afternoon (Friday 3 May).
The exciting freebie offer is all said to be “inspired by data” that shows that almost half of office workers aren’t taking a break from their desks during the day, even despite research showing that this can boost productivity.
Hundreds of iced matcha lattes will be served up at Blank Street‘s Manchester branch on the corner of King Street and Cross Street between 3pm and 4pm tomorrow.
Manchester’s new Instagrammable coffee shop is giving away free drinks tomorrow / Credit: Blank Street
For anyone “ice cold pick-me-up ahead of the long weekend”, but keen not to tip their employers off, the coffee shop chain has created an online tool to allow workers to discreetly add a matcha moment to their diary.
The brand-new online tool will apparently help to “distract calendar snoopers” by creating a cleverly-named meeting and adding it automatically to Outlook, Google, or Apple calendars – with potential meeting titles that include plenty of corporate jargon to “provide the perfect alibi”.
So, all matcha fans need to do tomorrow afternoon is show the Blank Street team at their chosen branch a meeting in their calendar, and in return, they’ll receive a free small iced matcha latte of their choice from the chain’s delicious spring menu.
Blank Street’s popular matcha offering includes the Classic Matcha, the viral Blueberry Matcha, the silky-smooth White Chocolate Matcha, and the brand-new sumptuous Golden Matcha, so there’s something to “inspire every matcha lover to take a little time out”.
As matcha allows a slow release of caffeine, Blank Street says it’s the “perfect drink” to keep energy levels up throughout the afternoon when you’re stuck at your desk on a Friday.
Georgina Pellant -
14th July 2023 
