New Restaurants
New Nightspots
Coming Soon
Tom Aikens has just taken over the former Blenheim pub space in Chelsea (27 Cale St., SW3) around the corner from his fine-dining restaurant Tom Aikens. While not scheduled to open for a while (the space had been vacant for two years), the 90-seat brasserie, which has yet to be given a name, will feature an all-day menu and an open-plan kitchen. There will also be a 25-seat private dining room, a bar and a games room with billiards, snooker tables and plasma screens, plus a basement wine cellar with a cheese room. As if that weren't enough, Aikens also plans on offering cookery classes.
Good Deals and Other News
As of mid-2007, there will be a full ban on smoking in England, including at restaurants, pubs and private clubs. The landslide vote came after months of debate, and will bring England in line with Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Executive chef Bjorn Van der Horst has left this New French to open his own restaurant (no details at this time). His replacement is Antonin Bonnet, formerly of the private club Morton's. Yvonnick Lalle, Morton's senior sous-chef, has been promoted to executive chef of that club. Both Morton's and the Greenhouse are owned by MARC.
This Classic French Eastender is now open for lunch as well as dinner.
Now open continuously from noon–11:30 PM, this Chelsea trattoria has introduced an express lunch offering Tuscan tapas (all dishes £3.50) from noon–6:30 PM.
A second location has opened in the Greenwich Picturehouse Cinema (178 Greenwich High Rd., SE10, 020-8293 9270), and features a whitewashed dining room with a long timbered bar and mezzanine. If you want to combine lunch or dinner with a movie, you can see what's playing at www.picturehouses.co.uk.
This Chiswick brasserie has acquired eight new pieces of artwork from Sir Peter Blake, a regular at the restaurant who's famous for his paintings of urban realist subjects and a pioneer of the Pop Art movement. The series, titled "Pieces of Eight," includes imagery of objects with personal meaning to Blake such as a faded Union Jack, cinema adverts dating back to the 1950s and an old pen from the 1960s.
The bar at this Marylebone Eclectic is now hosting a weekly Saturday jazz night with a special three-course menu (£20) offered at the 7:15 and 9:30 PM sittings; Giulio Risi and the Villandry All-Stars will play two one-hour sets at 8 PM and 10 PM (£5 cover charge for non-diners).
This Classic French restaurant atop the Hilton Park Lane is currently closed for refurbishment. Keith Hobbs of United Design is remodelling the space to evoke the golden age of the 1930s; a May reopening is anticipated.