Retail News Update

The owners of one of London’s most successful restaurants, The Wolseley, are looking for a site in New York as part of plans to take the brand international.

Following a cash injection two years ago from Dawnay, Day – the London-based private equity group – Jeremy King and Chris Corbin, the brains behind the Piccadilly restaurant, are understood to be eyeing further sites for The Wolseley brand in Los Angeles and in India.

The pair, who revived and sold on Le Caprice, J Sheekey and The Ivy, are also said to be considering other potential restaurant ventures across the Atlantic after negotiations to take over the Oak Room and Oak Bar at The Plaza on New York’s Fifth Avenue fell through, according to next week’s spring issue of the Square Meal lifestyle magazine.

Some sources say Rex Restaurants, Mr Corbin’s and Mr King’s holding company, could open five or six restaurants over the next few years, including a further London venue.

However it is understood there is no fixed roll-out plan, giving the duo the freedom to sniff out sites which meet their particular tastes and ideas.

The Wolseley – a Parisian-style grand brasserie housed in a 1920s car showroom on London’s Piccadilly – is thought to be the most successful restaurant in London with sales of more than £10m, attracting a broad range of customers from Mayfair-based hedge-fund managers to tourists visiting for tea and cakes.