Ask a Londoner to think of potential locations for the capital’s most exclusive restaurants, and the lion’s share would alight on the likes of Mayfair, St James’s and Soho,
The trendier among them might even opt for Hackney or Peckham.
But one place they almost certainly wouldn’t choose is Queensway, the neither here nor there, the unloved pocket between Notting Hill and Maida Vale.
Yet it is Queensway where the restaurateur who blessed London with legendary dining establishments like Le Caprice, The Wolseley, Zedel, and the Ivy has chosen to set up his latest venture.
King pictured in The Park
Called simply ‘The Park’, the new restaurant from Jeremy King, now open, which opened last week, is the jewel in the crown of a £530m residential development from Fenton Whelan that overlooks Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.
The development is itself part of a major £3bn makeover of Bayswater and Queensway that also includes a plush regeneration of the once-iconic shopping centre Whiteleys.
He and Corbin were eventually outbid by their Thai-based majority shareholder, Minor International, leaving the two giants of London’s dining scene without any stake in the restaurants they had lovingly and painstakingly built up over decades.
“The Park is a modern Grad Café” – King
The Park – along with the resurrection of Simspon’s in the Strand, one of London’s last grand dames, and a revival of Le Caprice under the new name Arlington – represent King’s long-awaited return to the London scene.
And if the project’s scale and grandeur are a barometer of his ambitions, Jeremy King is not giving up on London yet.
The restaurant will sprawl across 8,600 sq.ft, and provide over 150 covers (with an additional 22 outside seats for dining al fresco next to central London’s largest Royal Park). And its American art deco design takes its inspiration from the long line of high-end Manhattan diners that overlook Central Park.
Curated by head chef Samantha Williams, the menu promises Italian-American dishes inspired by 1970s California. Michelle Chillingworth, formerly of The Delauney, will be responsible for customers’ experience—a hallmark of King’s restaurants.
Commenting on the upcoming opening, Jeremy King said: “Queensway is an long underestimated but important part of London. Queensway opens onto Hyde Park and is surrounded by beautiful stucco villas and mansion buildings.
“The Park is a modern Grand Café in a great location on Queensway overlooking Hyde Park… [and] will transform Queenway, one of the capital’s last hidden secrets, into a vibrant new city village for London.”