The doors of Le Caprice, a restaurant once frequented by the likes of Diana, Princess of Wales, Princess Margaret, Mick Jagger, and Liz Taylor, may soon swing open again. Three years after its closure, the legendary London eatery is poised for a revival, and its revival is being led by a familiar face.
The famed restaurateur Jeremy King, known for his success with the Wolseley and the Delaunay, has announced that he has acquired the lease for 20 Arlington Street, the former location of Le Caprice. It was at Le Caprice that King began his journey in the restaurant business.
This return marks a reunion for King and Jesus Adorno, Le Caprice’s former maître d’, who has been with the restaurant since it was acquired by Richard Caring in 2005.
King first opened Le Caprice in 1981 with his partner, Chris Corbin. With its distinctive blue signage, it quickly became a haven for the stars of the 1980s and 1990s. In addition to the aforementioned royals and rock stars, Le Caprice also attracted the likes of Liz Hurley, Omar Sharif, and Madonna.
A Nostalgic Return
Harry Murray MBE, president of the Hospitality Professionals Association, has fond memories of Le Caprice. He first dined at the restaurant in 1982 and enjoyed countless meals there during King’s ownership. He expresses his enthusiastic support for the site’s reopening and Adorno’s involvement.
“Jesus’s total heart was in Le Caprice,” Murray shared. “He made you feel so important. You knew that you were surrounded by people getting exactly the same treatment, whether it be a politician or a film star.”
However, King’s ownership of Le Caprice came to an end in 2020 after the Corbin & King fine dining group, which he co-founded, went into administration due to the pandemic’s impact on business. King’s plans to buy back the business were thwarted by Minor International, owned by the Thai billionaire William Heinecke, who outbid him in an auction, paying over £60 million.
Despite this setback, Jay Rayner, the Observer’s restaurant critic, felt certain that King would return to the industry. He remarked, “King made it absolutely clear right from the moment he lost control of the original group that this was not the end for him.”
A New Chapter
Although King has acquired 20 Arlington Street, he is unlikely to be able to use the Le Caprice name. However, the restaurant’s reopening at this location signals a significant return for King. Rayner observes, “I have no doubt that it will be emotionally an important thing to him that he’s going back to where he started as an independent restaurateur.”
While the restaurant may evoke echoes of the original Le Caprice, it will not be a carbon copy. “This will not be a museum piece,” says Rayner. “He’ll be opening a new restaurant fit for 2024.”
Murray, who dined at Le Caprice after it was taken over by Caring, acknowledges that the restaurant was not the same. “It wasn’t the same. When you don’t see familiar faces and they don’t recognise you, you react in a different way. I don’t want to be unkind to Richard Caring but we never went back,” he said.
Rayner suggests that Caring’s management style may have contributed to the restaurant’s decline. “Jeremy King has always had a line which is, you should run restaurant businesses from the floor, not the boardroom. And to a lot of us, that has always felt like a dig at Richard Caring, who has never felt as if he was in it for the hospitality side of the hospitality business and more in it for business. And that has at times been to the detriment of some great old restaurants.”
A New Era
Replicating Le Caprice’s former glory as a magnet for A-listers in 2024 will be a challenge. “The world has moved on hugely since 1981, and Jeremy King will know that,” acknowledges Rayner.
He also highlights the heightened competition in the restaurant scene. “When the original Le Caprice opened, there wasn’t vast amounts of competition but now there is. It’s going to be impossible for it to be the landmark that it once was but I have absolutely no doubt that it’s in the hands of a very skilled restaurateur and will be somewhere that people will talk about.”
Regardless of the challenges, Murray is confident that Le Caprice will return to its former glory. “As soon as we know when it’s reopened, we will book and go,” he says.
The reopening of Le Caprice promises to be a momentous occasion. With its familiar management and a new vision for the future, the restaurant is poised to once again become a beacon of luxury and hospitality in London.
