Former Petrus head chef Larry Jayasekara to open Mayfair restaurant this autumn
Former Petrus head chef Larry Jayasekara is to open a restaurant in London's Mayfair with Tim Jefferies, the director of photography gallery Hamiltons, this autumn.
The pair have signed a 20-year lease for a 3,000 sq ft site spread across four floors at 27 Bruton Place.
The restaurant is yet to be named but will feature an open kitchen and private dining room within the Bruton Place Mews building.
Jayasekara and Jefferies have also secured an 800 sq ft site opposite the restaurant at 38 Bruton Place which they plan to transform into a delicatessen with a takeaway option on the ground floor. Both sites will be extensively remodelled before opening.
After 18 years living and working in the UK, Jayasekara was introduced to Jeffries and his photography gallery Hamiltons in Mayfair in 2020 and the two began planning to open a restaurant.
Jayasekara said: "It's been a bit of a roller coaster the past couple of years with Covid, but we're thrilled to have exchanged on this particular site. When we first decided to open a restaurant together, we knew it would have to be in the right location and this was our first choice."
Jayasekara arrived in the UK from his native Sri Lanka in 2002 and has worked in roles including chef de partie at the three-Michelin-starred Waterside Inn in Bray, Berkshire; senior sous chef at the two-starred Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons in Great Milton, Oxfordshire; and executive head chef at Manor in Weston-on-the-Green, Oxfordshire.
He joined Gordon Ramsay's Petrus in 2015 and was soon promoted to head chef and won the National Chef of the Year title in 2016. It was confirmed he had left the Michelin-starred restaurant in 2018.
Tim Weston, asset management director at Astrea, which manages the Bruton Place site, said: "We are very excited to welcome both Larry and Tim to Bruton Place. Delivering the site has required significant collaboration from both sides, and it has been a pleasure working with the tenant team. The restaurant and delicatessen will add significant further amenity as part of our wider repositioning of Bruton Place."
Jayasekara and Jefferies were advised by Dean Gambles & Co and Astrea by Hanover Green Retail.
