Clare Smyth celebrates the New Year with the news that she has secured a location for her first solo venture at 92 Kensington Park Road in London’s, Notting Hill.
After almost a decade at the helm of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea, the multi award winning chef left in April 2016 to set up her own restaurant but remained within the Group on a consultancy basis.
After many months of speculation, anticipation and planning delays throughout 2016, Clare has now signed a 15-year lease on the 3,921-sqft space and the restaurant is expected to open late Spring/early Summer 2017.
Clare explains, “It was pretty fraught at times in 2016, but I’m thrilled to have exchanged on this particular site. It was my first choice and I just love the history of the building.”
Yet to be named, the venue will be housed within the historic Victorian building, built in 1861 and modernised in the 1960s into a mixed use building with the ground floor opened as a restaurant known as Leith’s in 1969, with Prue Leith at the helm. Leith’s went on to win a Michelin star and became a fashionable hang out for artists, actors and rock stars during its 26-year reign. Leith’s closed in 1995 and the restaurant became a local brasserie.
The site will be remodeled extensively before reopening.