The owners of The Bun Club in Sutton have closed their burger joint and reopened a new restaurant on the same site.
In 2024, Faisal Khan, the former owner of Frankie’s Café in Sutton, teamed up with Giuseppe “Joe” Paini, the owner of Encanto Kitchen and the Ginger Italian in Carshalton, to bring Joe’s dream of opening a burger joint to life.
The Bun Club opened in May, but both owners had to close the burger restaurant after just five months on 29 Brighton Road.
Joe told Your Local Guardian: “The Bun Club didn’t work.
“We couldn’t get enough customers, we couldn’t drive enough sales, and we ended up having to change it before we went out of business.
“Heart on sleeve, we admit the failure and accept how the vision was kind of misguided, but we were so up for it, and we really believed it would work.
“But it’s not always what you think what people want is what people want.”
Unbeaten by what he referred to as a failure, Joe and Faisal, chose to remain committed and refused to give up despite the setback.
On October 20, 2024, The Bun Cub officially closed its doors.
Rather than leave the unit at Sutherland House empty, the owners chose to reopen as The Dining Room at No.6.
Faisal exclusively told Your Local Guardian: “We named it The Dining Room at No.6 because we want locals to casually refer to us as ‘No.6’ when deciding where to eat.
“We hope they’ll say, ‘Oh, let’s go eat at No.6.’”
Joe explained: “We created a new idea called The Dining Room at No.6, and it’s based around the British gastropub-style menu.
“We did a little refurb where we put trinkets and pictures up, and hanging planters and things like that to ensure customers that we have made a change.
“The menus are new, the design of the menus are new, and every dish is new.
“It’s a proper restaurant now rather than a burger bar.”
While retaining some of the burgers from The Bun Club, The Dining Room have added lamb shank, pork belly, Sunday roast, bangers and mash, three fish pie, and Shepherd’s Pie.
Joe has understood that people of Sutton are more interested in restaurants rather than a burger joint, citing the popularity of his existing restaurants.
Faisal said: “With The Bun Club, while the burgers were amazing, it left customers limited with what they could have.
“For example, if families wanted to come then they would buy burgers for their children, but not all would necessarily buy for themselves.
“Even when they brought their grandparents along, the grandparents weren’t keen on eating a smash burger.
“And then Christmas came around, and we found ourselves wondering, how do we create a three-course Christmas menu centred around burgers?
“So, we were very limited.
“It has always been Joe’s dream to open a burger joint and we have lived that dream now.”
The Dining Room officially opened on November 20, 2024, and both owners have expressed how popular their new restaurant is.
The owners now have plans to host a bottomless brunch twice a month and will release a Valentine’s Day menu.
The Dining Room at No.6 is open from 5pm to 10.30pm from Tuesday to Friday, 12pm to 10.30pm on Saturday, 12pm to 9pm on Sunday, and closed on Monday.