Jeremy King to reopen Le Caprice restaurant site

Esteemed restaurateur Jeremy King has taken the lease of Le Caprice and plans to reopen the Mayfair restaurant in the New Year.

King and long-term business partner Chris Corbin first took over the Le Caprice site in 1981, creating a contemporary restaurant that was the toast of London and attracted a celebrity clientele.

The restaurant was later acquired by Richard Caring who closed the site in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, saying it could reopen in another location.

Joining King for the reopening of the Le Caprice site will be Jesus Adorno, a former director of the restaurant who joined its team on the same day as Corbin and King in 1981 and remained at the venue until its closure in 2020.

King said Adorno had been "integral" to the restaurant's success and that together the pair would "aim to recreate a restaurant that for many of our customers over the years was the one they professed their greatest love for."

He added: "It will of course be a new version but I hope you will find it reassuringly familiar in how it looks, and what we serve."

The Times has suggested that the reopened site is likely to trade under a different name as Caring, whose hospitality empire includes Annabel's, Sexy Fish, and J Sheekey, has plans to use the Le Caprice name elsewhere.

Following the sale of Le Caprice, King and Corbin went on to open some of London's most recognised restaurants including the Wolseley, Colbert and Fischer's.

King was controversially ousted from the company they built in 2022 after a battle for control with Thai hotel group Minor International, which has since rebranded the business as the Wolseley Hospitality Group.

The winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2022 Cateys has since announced he would be opening the Park, a grand café and brasserie in west London in spring 2024 and has hinted at another West End opening.