Jeremy King is planning to relaunch the historic Simpson’s in the Strand restaurant in London next year.
The restaurateur told The Times he was at an early stage of plans to reopen what he described as “London’s last grand-dame restaurant”.
“That will be more of a big-theatre brasserie,” King told the paper. “But one that will very much hark on its tradition. I want people to walk in there and say, ‘Oh good, they haven’t changed it’, although it will have changed.”
Plans include a big restaurant downstairs, another upstairs, a basement bar, and a private dining room.
Simpson’s first opened in 1828 and was one of the first restaurants in the UK to win a Michelin star in 1974.
It is owned by the neighbouring Savoy hotel, which invested in a major revamp of the dining room in 2017. The restaurant has not reopened since 2020 and some of its fixtures and fittings, including the famous silver carving trolleys, were auctioned off over the summer.
Franck Arnold, managing director of the Savoy, told The Caterer last month the hotel was in the process of signing a partner to reopen the space and he expected the relaunch to “make a bit of noise”.
“If everything happens according to plan, I would say we should open before mid-next year, though it is still not finalised,” said Arnold.
Simpson’s will be the third in a trio of London openings planned by King next year. He has taken on the former Le Caprice restaurant site and will relaunch it under the new name Arlington early next year, while King is set to invest £8m in opening New York-inspired ‘grand café’ the Park in Bayswater next spring.
King was ousted from his restaurant group Corbin & King last year after a battle for control with Thai hotel group Minor International, which has since rebranded the business as the Wolseley Hospitality Group.
The new openings form part of a new business group called Jeremy King Restaurants, which he runs as a solo venture.
King received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 Cateys.
Source: The Caterer
