There’s been a lot of speculation about the location of ‘new’
Pétrus. Everyone knows that the new Gordon Ramsay restaurant is planned for some time later this year, but – until now – no one has known exactly where. Well, Harden’s can now reveal that the new premises will be at 1 Kinnerton Street SW1, by the junction with Motcomb Street.
The new site looks rather like a couple of standard shop units, albeit in a swanky new-build development with the the sort of specification you’d expect in the heart of Belgravia. It was, it transpires, only as recently as March that a planning application was granted to increase the size of the restaurant to two units. For atmosphere, it’s difficult to see how such a space will be able to match the impressive original site, now trading as Marcus Wareing at the Berkeley, just 400 yards away at the other end of the street.
The key question, of course, is how the cooking will compare. The best restaurants are rarely very large, so there’s every possibility that the Ramsay team can really make something of this relatively small-scale operation. It looks broadly similar in scale to Murano, the group’s most recent London fine dining opening. This has been quite a hit with the press critics – and we described it as “one of the best openings of 2008” – so let’s hope for a repeat performance here later in the year.
Incidentally, we asked Sauce Communications, Ramsay’s PR company, if they’d like to share with readers any further details of the new restaurant, but no response has been forthcoming.
(For anyone who’s been on Mars for the past 12 months, incidentally, Pétrus was formerly the name of the main restaurant at the Berkeley Hotel, and was last year the focus of a messy divorce between its then proprietor Gordon Ramsay and its chef Marcus Wareing. In short, Marcus got the premises and Gordon got the name, which has been looking for a site – so to speak – ever since.)
PS (5 June) Sauce today released certain details of Pétrus confirming our exclusive story.
PPS (9 June) Further details of the new restaurant are now to hand. Features, it seems, will include a “stunning open cellar displaying up to 2000 bottles of wine”. The wine list will include 34 vintages of the eponymous claret. Continuity with the old régime will come in the form of restaurant director Jean-Philippe Susilovic, who was in charge of ‘old’ Pétrus for half a decade.
Design will be by Russell Sage Studio, also responsible for York & Albany and the forthcoming Savoy Grill. The new restaurant will indeed be relatively small (54 seats), including “two semi-screened private dining tables”, for six and 12 guests.
The reservations number if 020 7592 1609.
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