Gregg Wallace's restaurant to close as Bermondsey Square Hotel association comes to 'natural end'

21-Aug-2013 - Last updated on 24-May-2024 at 12:57 GMT

Gregg Wallace's association with Bermondsey Square Hotel will finish at the end of the year as the two-year agreement comes to 'a natural end'

London's Bermondsey Square Hotel has refuted claims that Gregg Wallace's restaurant Gregg's Bar & Grill is being closed later this year because it received negative reviews.

The 80-cover restaurant was opened by the MasterChef judge in February last year as the 1970-themed Gregg's Table before changing its name to Gregg's Bar & Grill in October where the retro menu of dishes like prawn cocktail and chicken kiev were replaced with one of more modern British dishes.

A report in the Daily Mail yesterday said Wallace's association with the hotel, run by Bespoke Hotels, was being terminated following 'a series of scathing reviews'.

However, a joint statement from Wallace and Bespoke Hotels, said the contract was naturally coming to an end and there was no other reason for the move.

“As was always the case and both parties had discussed over a month ago, the two-year agreement with Gregg Wallace at the Bermondsey Square Hotel is coming to a natural end later this year. There is no change to this arrangement and any suggestion to the contrary would be entirely unfounded," it said.

Restaurant future

The ground-floor restaurant at Bermondsey Square Hotel, the location for TV series Hotel GB, will continue to run as a restaurant once Wallace's association is ended with it. However, it is not yet known if the hotel will work with another operator or run the restaurant in-house.

In a video interview with BigHospitality last year following the opening of Gregg's table, Wallace said he was expecting to be 'attacked by critics'

"I expect to get judged quite harshly, but I don't care," he said, "as long as this restaurant is full of people eating I'll be happy."