YORK'S newest burger restaurant opened in the city as a result of requests from residents says the founder of the company as he reveals the journey behind bringing his brand to the north.

Just over a week ago Byron created 40 jobs in the city when it opened its new 108-seater restaurant in High Ousegate.

York is only the third "northern city" in the UK to be targetted by Byron, which has 29 of its 35 sites in London.

Outside of the capital Byron can be found in Cambridge, Kent, Oxford, Manchester and Liverpool.

Talking about his business's migration north, and the opening of the new York restaurant, Byron founder Tom Byng said: "We’ve always taken a practical approach of 'one restaurant at a time' based on where our customers want us to be.

"It’s served us well since we started six years ago.

"York is an historic city and we really like the mix of places to eat and drink.

"We got quite a few emails from locals saying they’d like to see us open here; it was no more complicated than that really.

"Finding the right location was more tricky, we’ve been looking for a couple of years so it’s great to finally be up and running."

York's Byron opened in the former cafe The Danish Kitchen which closed early this year after more than 35 years in York, with the loss of 17 jobs.

Byron was founded six years by Mr Byng, who after a four year stint in America, saw a gap in the UK market for restaurants selling what he desrcibes as "proper hamburgers the way they should be".

He said: "Our approach is to do a simple thing and do it properly. We’ve spent a lot of time America and so our hamburgers are based on the simple, classic hamburgers we’d enjoyed there, but couldn’t find in the UK.

"We also design our restaurants individually. Every one is different and suited to the building and local environment.

"We have a fantastic team here in York, our approach is to make sure we spend time in town to find some great people."

Byron was owned by the Gondola Group, which also owns Pizza Express and Zizzi, but was sold in October last year for £100 million to Wagamama’s parent company Hutton Collins Partners.