The pair closed the ill-fated restaurant for good at the weekend (24-25 June) after fewer than two years’ of trading. US better burger chain Shake Shack is believed to have bought the lease on the site to open its eighth burger restaurant in the UK.
Vico launched in late August 2015 serving pizza by the slice and other Italian street food - with cutlery ‘strongly frowned upon’ according to its founders - but its menu and counter-ordering approach received a mixed reception. At the time, Kenedy described it as ‘boisterous, accessible, affordable and utterly delicious’.
The restaurant then relaunched a few months later with a more traditional menu structure of starters, pizzas and pasta mains and desserts and the interior was also given an overhaul to brighten up the space and to give it a more all-day appeal.
Vico’s closure marks the second time a more ambitious restaurant brand has opened in Cambridge Circus to later be replaced by a burger chain. Belgian restaurant group Léon De Bruxelles chose the theatre-land London location for its first restaurant in the UK in 2012 but the site has since become a McDonald’s.