The Regent Street site was most recently operated by Ignite Group as Japanese restaurant and cocktail bar concept Senkai and previously, more successfully, as pan-Asian Cocoon.
Bruno Loubet
However the venue, which also sits on the corner of Air Street, was also the home of Bruno Loubet's L'Odeon. Loubet introduced the site to Will Beckett who runs Underdog Group, which owns the Hawksmoor brand, with his business partner Huw Gott.
"Bruno and Catherine Loubet were kind enough to walk round the restaurant with us before we decided to take it on, and helped us imagine it as it might have been in its glory days - beautifully designed, bustling and exciting," Beckett said.
"We've never taken on a space with this kind of history before and it definitely adds to the pressure."
Seafood
The 235-cover restaurant is expected to be a departure from the steak-led menu Hawksmoor is known for with an equal focus being placed on seafood which will be prepared on a charcoal grill.
Hawksmoor is understood to have agreed a deal with Ignite Group to take on an assignment of the lease for its restaurant in a deal overseen by property agents Davis Coffer Lyons.
"We originally let this unusual space to Ignite Group and their Cocoon restaurant was a success for nearly a decade," Josh Leon, associate director at Davis Coffer Lyons, said.
"Recently they reopened it as Senkai which didn’t work quite so well, but as experienced restaurateurs know, licensed leaseholds can in some cases command substantial premiums even when the business inside is no longer thriving.
Hawksmoor only recently opened restaurant number three in the City when Hawksmoor Guildhall opened late last year. In March, Beckett and Gott announced they were opening a new 60-cover bar in their Spitalfields restaurant to give a 'more glamorous' feel to the portfolio.
The Art Deco-inspired interior in the Regent Street restaurant Hawksmoor will open in October includes a run of floor to ceiling windows overlooking Regent Street.