Pizza restaurant Flout seeks Cathedral Quarter move

Independent pizza restaurant Flout! has submitted plans to relocate from East Belfast to a new premises in the city centre.

The business, which opened in late 2021 at the Portview Trade Centre on Newtownards Road, has lodged an application with Belfast City Council’s Planning Department to establish a new site on Donegall Street, within the Cathedral Quarter.

According to the Design and Access Statement accompanying the application, Flout stated: “The award winning Flout opened at its current location in Portview Trade Centre on the Newtownards Road in late 2021 providing pizza to take away and eat in, as well as hosting occasional special events. Generating footfall, it has contributed to the vitality of Portview and the wider Newtownards Road since its opening.

“The proposed relocation of Flout to Donegall Street will similarly contribute to the vitality of Donegal Street, the Cathedral Quarter and Belfast City Centre more generally. It will bring a vacant unit in a listed building the City Centre back into use which is to be welcomed.”

While the application progresses, the restaurant has remained light-hearted about its future on social media. In a post published on Thursday, the team wrote: “Something may or may not be happening in the Cathedral Quarter sometime in the future.”

They added: “I love making the best pizza I possibly can and I always want to get it to as many people who’d like to try it as possible. I’m always looking at options to do that… I can neither confirm nor deny anything right now.”

If approved, the move would mark a significant step for the independent brand, positioning it in one of Belfast’s busiest hospitality districts.