West End restaurant Joe Allen sold after 35 years
Long-standing West End restaurant Joe Allen has been sold after more than three decades in the same ownership.
The restaurant in Covent Garden is changing hands after owner Richard Polo decided to sell it after running it for 35 years.
Joe Allen has been bought by Carluccio's chairman Stephen Gee and west London restaurateurs Tim Healy and Lawrence Hartley, who are reported to have paid around £1m for it. The men have also taken over Orso, a diner linked to Joe Allen by an underground passage, reports the London Evening Standard.
Hartley said: "We are very, very excited. We will be taking the place forward, but we will be retaining the principle of being the ultimate American dining experience in London."
The original Joe Allen opened in New York in 1977, with the London outpost launching later that same year. There are also outlets in Paris, Maine and Miami.
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](http://www.caterersearch.com/Articles/02/03/2012/342684/CG-Restaurants-set-to-relaunch-Tuttons-and-Dirty-Martini-in-Covent.htm)By Kerstin Kühn
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