News

HIX goes to Selfridges

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:49:56 +0000

Mark Hix has confirmed that he’s opening another London restaurant early next year. ‘HIX Restaurant & Champagne Bar’ will open in Selfridge’s in February on the site of what’s currently called the Gallery Restaurant and the Möet Champagne Bar.   Talks on Hix’s takeover of the site have been on- going with Ewan Venters, Selfridge’s director of food and restaurants, over the past year.   The Selfridge’s Food Hall already stocks Hix’s beer, dressings, jellies and ‘Hix Cure’ smoked salmon. “I get on well with Ewan and was immediately interested in the opportunity when it was first mentioned,” said Hix.   The 80-cover restaurant space and adjacent bar are to be given a revamp with a new zinc bar and the kitchen being relocated. Art work from Tracey Emin, Garry Webb and others will be featured in the dining room.   Head chef for the new venture has yet to be confirmed. “The menu will be a bit different from my other places as there’ll be some European stuff on there, such as risottos and not just British dishes,” said Hix.

The restaurant will be the the fourth in London to carry the HiX name after the Hix Oyster & Chophouse, Hix at the Albemarle and the recently launched HIX on Brewer Street in Soho. He also runs Hix Oyster & Fish House in Lyme Regis in Dorset. 
Hix has plans for further expansion and is searching for a suitable site in Mayfair to open a steakhouse.

El Camino expands into Soho

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:24:30 +0100

Combining two current trends, the seemingly unstoppable rise of the Mexican restaurant and the revival of Soho’s restaurant scene, Portobello Road’s El Camino is to open a second branch on Brewer Street in early December.   It will be a partnership between Ned and Sage Conran, who originally opened their ‘Fresh Mexican Grill’ take-away this summer in modest premises under the Westway, and Jerome Armit, previously operations manager of the Crazy Bear. “El Camino is about Mexican food cooked fresh in front of you,” said Armit.   The site last saw action as gentleman’s club The Enclave, and was previously the private member’s club Abigail’s Party. El Camino will feature an open kitchen, with a take-away and a 50-cover restaurant built around a display of 2000 different hot sauces on the ground floor, with a basement dining area and bar that will open in the evenings.   Unlike the original El Camino it will run from midday to 3am, feature full table service and an extensive cocktail list.

Foxy new Soho branch of Byron

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:26:28 +0100

This long boarded-up Soho boozer in a prime location on Wardour Street - erstwhile favourite for metalheads, goths and the heavily pierced - has been crying out for an ambitious operator with some gumption to show it some love for a couple of years.   Sadly for those that care about the steady decline of London watering holes, it’s no longer going to be a pub of any description - although anyone that paid it a visit in its piss-stink final years probably won’t be shedding a tear.   The news that Gondola Holdings had taken on the lease raised the terrifying possibility of another PizzaExpress - or even worse an ASK or a Zizzi - in the area until it was revealed that the site will be a branch of their surprisingly pleasing burger brand Byron.   Launched in December 2007 with a first outlet in Kensington High Street, the Soho Byron which will open in November will be the seventh.So far they’ve managed to keep the quality of their burgers up, although a recent visit revealed that their buns aren’t as over-the-top floury as they used to be. Then again it’s not everyone who likes their lips that powdered when they’re eating a burger.

MPW resurrects Wheeler's

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:48:52 +0100

Marco Pierre White is, once again, open under the Wheeler’s of St. James’s name, having run the famous old fish restaurant in its original listed St James’s Duke of York Street premises - now offices - from 2001 to 2004. Garry Hollihead, recently returned from Dubai, who last worked with White at MPW in Canary Wharf and last worked in London for Mark Fuller at Geales and Embassy, will be head chef for the brand’s resurrection on what was  MPW’s Luciano on St James’s Street.

Kinky Dutch Landing

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:43:36 +0100

Eighteen years after the Supperclub first opened in Amsterdam, it’s coming to London. Having made it to San Francisco, Istanbul and Singapore in the interim, the original outré horizontal dining experience, that made its name with a combination of kinky cabaret and eating on giant white beds, is opening a 160-cover restaurant, licensed until 2am, on the Ladbroke Grove site that was once the club Subterania, in early November.