Claude Bosi’s flagship restaurant Bibendum at landmark Michelin House in Brompton Cross has closed down suddenly following a breakdown in relations between the chef and the owners of the building, the Hamlyn and Conran families.
The restaurant served its final meals on Sunday (25 August), while the downstairs Oyster Bar & Seafood Restaurant is to close this coming Sunday (31 August).
The closure was confirmed in a social media statement from Claude and his wife Lucy, expressing their “deep sadness” at the move. They said:
“Despite our very best efforts, we were unable to reach a resolution with our partners and landlords that would allow Michelin House to move into its next chapter.”
The Lyons-born chef took over the restaurant in 2017, a few months after closing his own restaurant Hibiscus, where he had established his reputation, first in Ludlow and latterly in Mayfair. Bibendum has been a key destination on the London dining scene since it opened under the late Sir Terence Conran in 1987, with Simon Hopkinson running the kitchen.
The distinctive proto-Art Deco building was constructed in 1911 as the London HQ of the Michelin tyre company, which sold it to Conran and his publisher friend Paul Hamlyn in 1987. The restaurant takes its name from Bibendum, the famous ‘Michelin Man’ of advertising lore, and one of Claude’s achievements at the venue has been to earn it the star from the tyre men that had previously been withheld. A second star followed.
In recent years Claude has expanded his operations, opening Brooklands restaurant at the Peninsula hotel and two Josephine bistros, as well as the short-lived Socca in Mayfair. But when he opened at Bibendum, he told the Observer he had every intention of running it long into the future: “This is my last move. I hope so. I feel at home here.”
