Mayfair’s Hospitality Re-Awakened | My Soho Times

Restaurateur and founder of Berkeley Simmons Leisure, Jeremy Simmons, shares in-depth insights on Mayfair’s hospitality scene awakening…

As a long term advisor in the international and particularly the London restaurant space, I am aware of what has happened, what is about to happen and what may never happen in the London restaurant scene. There has been a substantial change in the immediate area of Mayfair, with new openings and a whole new crowd of restaurant customers never before seen in Mayfair. To fully experience this I would recommend that at around 7.00pm you take a look outside Hakkasan, Amazonico, Sexy Fish & Novikov, and all will be revealed!

Due to my work with operators from all around the globe, I am well-versed as to the demand for space, (especially in Mayfair) which is still peaking from all the serious groups. Eye watering rents have been agreed between landlords and new tenants, which has oddly boosted the demand for space as close to Berkeley Square as possible.

he swooped in against more than fifteen bids and took the space off the market, with the ultimate vision of opening Sexy Fish. The original deal has already been rent reviewed and is now in the region of £1.4M pa, plus he paid a serious premium.

Then Ferit Sahenk’s Dogus Group adopted the same principals on the Allied Irish Bank and acquired this space for their partnership with Sandro Silva and Marta Seco, with their popular Amazonico from Salamanca in Madrid’s version of Mayfair.

11 Berkeley Street was acquired by a partnership of Ari Ojalvo, Shimon Bokovza and a friend from Miami (the original Sushi Samba team) with the objective of opening their R&B concept from Las Vegas. This was ultimately ditched by the partnership and again intense bidding took place and Seagrass Hospitality from Australia acquired the space from the landlord in possession. Roy Ner, in partnership with Seagrass, have now finally opened Jeru. During this period, Nobu’s lease expired and they relocated to Portman Square in their new hotel.

Again, competition to acquire 15 Berkeley Street became intense with bidders from Dubai and Europe. This space was again given to the highest bidder (Omar Saideh’s Orange Hospitality from Dubai) who own the three times voted ‘Best Restaurant in Dubai’ award, Il Borro, partnered with the Ferragamo family.

IT London from Ibiza also took a new restaurant space at 28-29 Dover Street, paying yet more high rents, and the ill-fated 19-20 Dover Street was finally acquired – at a realistic rent I must note – by Emerald Hospitality Group, a partnership between brothers Arian and Alberto Zandi, there they opened El Norte.

So much actually was happening during the lockdown period, which included the landlord of Langan’s Brasserie repossessing the space from Vijay Malde’s company Langans Brasserie Ltd, and quietly offering a new opportunity to a selected few. I was bidding on this amazing opportunity with a 2am licence and the ‘off market’ competition was severe. A deal was struck with a new lease and this was delivered to a partnership between the extremely smart Graziano Arricale of the Caring/Birley Clubs stable and James Hitchen of East Coast Concepts from the north. Personally, I was very sceptical about this new incarnation of the old Langan’s, but with great enthusiasm, I sincerely hope that it surpasses all expectations, doing justice and respect to Peter Langan, Richard Shepherd and Michael Caine.

The following is a list of many of the pre-covid openings and others that have happened during this scary period in our lives. There is still a list of developments underway in Mayfair, some of which are common knowledge and others that are still confidential. I can mention Starwood Capital and Crosstree re-development of the old Holiday Inn at One Berkeley Street to become the first 1 Hotel in the UK – possibly featuring a new chef-led, street level restaurant and bar with courtyard; the Mirabelle new building on Curzon Street; In & Out by the Reuben Brothers (Motcomb Estates); the Westbury Hotel on Conduit Street owned by the Cola’s; Leaconfield House on Curzon Street with Robert Tchenguiz, along with a couple of local banking halls.

Written by Jeremy Simmons

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