Paramount to license first Cheers themed restaurant bar in Britain

Cheers, the Boston bar featured in the long-running TV comedy series, is the latest addition to the crowded market of themed restaurants and bars in London.

Paramount Pictures has agreed to license the opening of Europe’s first Cheers-branded restaurant bar in London’s Café Royal in late August.

The company already licenses a chain of Cheers-branded airport bars in the US, operated by Marriott.

The venue will feature a replica bar from the series and promotional tie-ups with Ben & Jerry ice cream, Samuel Adams Beer and American Airlines.

Despite its New England theme, Cheers London will avoid the “in-your face service often associated with American restaurants”, according to restaurateur Alan Panlilio, who has secured the European restaurant franchising rights for the series.

He considered, but then rejected, the idea of issuing customers with name badges to replicate the first-name terms atmosphere of the bar in the TV show.

“It may not be the place where ‘everybody knows your name’, but we are hoping to establish it as a place where ‘they’re always glad you came’,” he says.

If the launch of the 2m ven ture is successful, Panlilio plans more Cheers operations in other UK and European cities, including Barcelona, Paris, Berlin and Dublin.