Pizza, pots and pints concept pub for city centre

It is expected to open in Queen Street overlooking St John’s Square in the summer, in what until recently operated as the Clarkes fine dining restaurant.

Prior to 2013 it had been the brewery-run Grapevine pub.

With a name still to be confirmed, the pub will offer thin, light, crispy artisan pizza (cooked in a wood-fired oven), warming one-pot comfort food - mac and cheese, cheesy squash casserole ham hock fricassee - and beer of beer from the Charles Wells Brewery in Bedford.

A spokesman said: “Following the successful launch of our Pizza, Pots and Pints concept at the Salisbury Arms two years ago – since crowned the Best Pub in Cambridge by the Cambridge Evening News – we’re looking to bring its winning formula to Peterborough.

“It has been received better than we could have hoped and we feel we have found a winning formula, so it makes more sense to go with a managed site.”

Aware of the huge changes in the eating and drinking scene in the city centre in recent years, the spokesman added: “We have been tracking this site for some time and this gives us a great opportunity to have more creative control and do something different to the other operators.”

The company is awaiting approval from city planners for new signage and some internal alterations - not least installation of a pizza oven - and expects to open the revitalised site in the summer.

It is however recruiting for the new venture - email [email protected]