Le Caprice, the celebrity restaurant famed as Princess Diana’s’ favourite haunt, is to return to the London dining scene at a new Mayfair location next summer five years after it closed down during the pandemic.
Owner Richard Caring told the Standard he has signed a deal to open at The Chancery Rosewood, the £1billion luxury hotel being created in Eero Saarinen’s former US Embassy building in Grosvenor Square.
It is planned that the hotel and restaurant will launch in June 2025.
The new Le Caprice, with interiors designed by Martin Brudnizki, will be sited on the south east corner of a building once surrounded by concrete bollards and seen as one of the world’s most secure diplomatic missions.
It will be on two levels with 120 seats in the main restaurant built around a large bar, a further 88 on an “all year round” terrace that can be used in winter, and a private dining room that will seat 24.
The seven day a week venue will open at 7.30am for breakfast and carry on for lunch and dinner until “late”, Mr Caring said.
Mr Caring, who also owns The Ivy, J Sheekey, Scott’s and Annabel’s club, said the new location would “keep the essence” of the original Le Caprice, where stars such as Elton John, Madonna and Mick Jagger, thronged and gossiped in its Eighties and Nineties heyday - but in a modernised setting.
He said: ”My belief is that things have to move on, they have to move forward, it was the same at Annabel’s. Le Caprice opened in 1981 and that’s 43 years ago.
“I’m sure a lot of people will want to see Le Caprice as it was, but I believe it should be moved into the 2020s. I want it to be chic, comfortable and classic. I think it’s fabulous to mix the old and the new both in style, customers and in food.”
The menu will also be updated with old Le Caprice classics - favourites included steak tartare, bang bang chicken, and salmon fishcakes - making up only about a fifth of the dishes on offer.
The launch sets up an intriguing rivalry with fellow restaurateur Jeremy King who opened his own venue Arlington on the original site of Le Caprice at 20 Arlington Street near the Ritz in March.
King made his name at Le Caprice, which he ran from 1981 to 2005 when it was bought by Caring.
King said when he opened Arlington: “One thing I want to avoid is napkin wars. There’s plenty of room for both of us.”
