This story has been updated – see latest news (2 November)
It is now confirmed that Rowley Leigh – longtime chef at Kensington Place W8 – is to launch a major new venture, scheduled for August, at Whiteley’s in Bayswater. His business partner will be Charlie McVeigh (of Bush Bar & Grill and Woody’s fame).
The name is a bit of a puzzle. Perhaps it’s a joke about cosmopolitan Bayswater. Presumably it’s also supposed to evoke the ‘Café Anglais’ – one of 19th-century Paris’s greatest restaurants. Perhaps there were some legal or ‘respect’ concerns about using that name properly, as La Tour d’Argent – languishing in Michelin terms, but still one of Paris’s most celebrated restaurants – is to this day owned by descendants of the last manager of the Café Anglais, André Terrail. (And the fame of La Tour’s wine cellar dates back to the acquisition of that of the Café, when the latter closed in 1913.)
PS (30 May) Beware the power of this site. The new restaurant is now to be called… "Le Café Anglais”!
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