More More More for Assembly Rooms entrepreneur
The man perhaps best known for operating one of the North East’s most popular conference and event venues has now added a gourmet food delivery business to his portfolio.
Antony Michaelides, whose family’s company has run Newcastle’s historic Assembly Rooms for 40 years, has now created More More More, which offers freshly made food from the venue’s kitchens delivered to homes around the UK.
Together with wife Fiona, Antony launched the online business just before Christmas, and is now taking on another five chefs to keep pace with demand.
More More More was trialed for six months before officially launching, and its food which uses locally sourced ingredients wherever possible has been consistently rated ahead of high-end ready meal competitors in independent taste tests.
Its gourmet cuisine, which can either be ordered as advertised on its website or can be made to bespoke requirements, is cooked by chefs in the 237-year-old Grade II listed Assembly Rooms. It is then vacuum packed and then put into insulated boxes with gel packs, to ensure it arrives at its destination in perfect condition within the following 24 hours.
More More More has been established with the support of Newcastle law firm Sintons. Partner Christopher Welch has worked with the Michaelides family for more than 20 years.
Antony Michaelides who is also currently overseeing the £1m transformation of the Assembly Rooms into the Bonbar restaurant and nightclub said:
“We are renowned for the quality of our food at the Assembly Rooms, so it almost seemed a logical step to diversify from there to provide our top class cuisine for dinner parties and busy families across the UK.
“Our food is cooked to order by our team of outstanding chefs, and delivered within 24 hours to wherever it needs to be by the best couriers. There are few, if any, businesses in this country doing what we do, certainly none in this region, and already we are seeing orders coming in from across the UK.
“With the horsemeat scandal, and the increasing focus on traceable ingredients and the levels of salt and sugar in what we eat, there is a renewed desire for fresh, home-cooked food that is what we are providing, and is precisely why it is proving to be so popular.”
Christopher Welch, Partner in the Company and Commercial department at Sintons, said: “The Assembly Rooms has, over the past 40 years, built an outstanding reputation for its quality and commitment to excellence in many areas, not least its food. That foundation is now the basis for More More More, which gives diners around the UK access to the Assembly Rooms’ exceptional cuisine.
“This is an exciting new venture for Antony and Fiona and both I and Sintons are very pleased to be able to support them with the creation of More More More, which has already got off to the strongest of starts.”
