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Jamie Oliver and other restaurateurs defy credit crunch for 2009
Jonathan Prynn and Benedict Moore-Bridger22 Dec 2008
Three of London's leading restaurateurs plan ambitious openings next year and in 2010 despite the economic downturn, the Standard has learned.
The moves by Sir Terence Conran, Richard Caring and Jamie Oliver will be seen as major votes of confidence in the restaurant scene in the face of the worst recession for more than 25 years.
The first, Sir Terence's £10million Shoreditch project Boundary, has an official opening night on New Year's Eve. It is in a converted Victorian warehouse with two restaurants - a French dining room called Boundary and a cheaper, British inspired café called Albion - as well as a roof-top bar and 17-room hotel.
It will be Sir Terence's 50th restaurant opening in a career that started with The Soup Kitchen off Trafalgar Square in 1953.
He told the Standard he had no fear of a recession: "It slightly dates back to the opening of Quaglino's on Valentine's Day in 1992 in the depths of the last recession. Everyone said you're completely mad - and of course it was absolutely packed out."
Boundary will be followed by a second scheme in the summer in the former Reuters building in Fleet Street designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. This will have a bar, restaurant, private dining rooms and a private members' club, at a cost of up to £5million. Sir Terence is putting about £5million of his own money into the two projects. "It is a safer place to put it than a hedge fund," he said.
Mr Caring is planning to open three dining rooms just yards from his Ivy restaurant near Leicester Square. The venues will be the main attraction of the £60million St Martin's Courtyard project, due to be completed in 2010 and owned by one of London's largest shopping developers, Shaftesbury. The development, called Longmartin, will also include shops, offices and at least 20 flats.
Mr Caring, owner of Caprice Holdings whose restaurants include Scott's, The Ivy and J Sheekey, is set to pay nearly £1million a year for the three 5,000sqft restaurants, which will be made available on 25-year leases costing around £300,000 a year each.
Sources close to Davis Coffer Lyons, the agency negotiating the restaurant deals, said Mr Caring wanted to open the ventures to consolidate his dominant position in the West End restaurant scene.
The source said: "He has not signed anything yet but Richard has said he will do something there. It is within spitting distance from The Ivy and JSheekey and he wants two new concepts nearby - it is a perfect location."
Jamie Oliver plans to open a flagship Jamie's Italian in the same development. Shaftesbury director Simon Quayle, in charge of the scheme, said having Caring and Oliver on board was "a major coup".
He told the Standard: "Richard Caring is interested in either two or three restaurants. We have also had interest from Jamie Oliver, who wants one as one of his new Italians - he wants it as his London flagship.
"The West End is such a draw nationally and internationally that these types of operators want to open up new concepts in these areas."
Two other expected launches next year include oyster bar and bistro The Commander in Notting Hill in February and the relocated Pétrus - part of the Gordon Ramsay empire - at an undisclosed site in Knightsbridge.
