Clare Smyth to open her own restaurant in Notting Hill later this year
Clare Smyth will be opening her first solo venture in London's Notting Hill later this year at 92 Kensington Park Road, replacing the former Notting Hill Brasserie site.
Smyth, who won the Chef Award at the 2016 Cateys, became the first and only female holder of three Michelin stars in the UK during her time as chef-patron at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay in Chelsea.
The 60-cover restaurant, as yet unnamed, will comprise a total of 3,921 sq ft and is expected to open in late spring or early summer.
The Northern Irish chef originally hoped to open last autumn but was delayed by a series of setbacks. She has now taken a lease of 15 years with an annual rent of £135,000.
Smyth said: "It was pretty fraught at times in 2016, but I'm thrilled to have exchanged on this particular site. It was my first choice and I just love the history of the building."
The restaurant will be housed within the Victorian building which first opened as restaurant as Leith's in 1969 with Prue Leith at the helm.
It went on to win a Michelin star, which the site held from 1994 to 1999 inclusively. The building has been empty since 2014, when Iberian specialist Notting Hill Kitchen closed, prior to that it was known as Notting Hill Brasserie.
David Rawlinson, founder and director at Restaurant Property, who acted on Smyth's behalf, said: "Clare has been looking for about a year for this type of site to come up and the former Notting Hill Brasserie ticked all the boxes.
"The residents of Notting Hill will soon be spoilt for choice, with the Ledbury - number 14 in the world's top 50 restaurants - only a stone's throw away and now Clare Smyth's exciting new restaurant opening."
Smyth spent almost a decade at the helm of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Royal Hospital Road in Chelsea and left in April last year to set up her own restaurant. She remained within the group on a consultancy basis.
The Notting Hill site will be remodelled extensively before reopening. It is situated within a mixed use building owned by Amazon Property.
Charles Gourgey, chief executive of Amazon Property said: "Clare Smyth is an internationally renowned chef and her new signature restaurant at 92 Kensington Park Road will generate huge cachet for the local area, just as Leith's did in the 1970s."
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