The Clove Club Group co-founders Isaac McHale, Johnny Smith and Daniel Willis have announced their amicable parting of ways. As a result, two separate businesses will be created for their restaurants The Clove Club and LUCA, with more projects said to be on the cards. Smith and Willis are now co-owners of LUCA, while McHale owns The Clove Club.
D&D London has announced that co-founder David Loewi will step down from his role as CEO and board director at the end of the year. Loewi, who has led the group as CEO since the departure of fellow cofounder Des Gunewardena in September 2022, will serve as advisor to the board with a particular emphasis on international expansion while a new CEO is appointed. ILoewi created D&D in 2007 when he and Des Gunewardena led a management buyout of his previous employer Conran Restaurant Group.
The team behind modern Italian restaurant Legare near London Bridge is to launch a new concept directly opposite it on Shad Thames in spring 2025. Luna will take over the space previously occupied by D&D London’s Le Pont de la Tour Food Store and is positioned as a neighbourhood-style wine bar, bottle shop and restaurant. Holding 28 covers inside, including a counter dining bar, Luna will be led by Legare founders Jay Patel and Matt Beardmore (pictured), with the latter also overseeing the kitchen as executive chef.
French wine bar and restaurant Leroy in London’s Shoreditch has permanently closed its doors after nearly seven years trading. The restaurant, which was led by sommelier and restaurateur Ed Thaw and opened in March 2018, held its last service on Saturday (16 November). Its closure comes after Leroy lost its star in the Michelin Guide Great Britain & Ireland earlier this year, having held it since 2019. In a statement posted to Instagram entitled It is better to burn out than to fade away, Thaw referenced the struggles of the post-Covid trading environment as being behind the decision to close.
Din Tai Fung will open its fourth UK restaurant, in London’s Canary Wharf, next year. The Taiwanese restaurant group has chosen Crossrail Place to open the restaurant, its first in east London, which will have space for 112 covers plus a private dining room that seats 16. At the heart of the restaurant will be a show kitchen where diners can see chefs make Din Tai Fung’s signature xiao long bao dumplings, a process that passes through six stations manned by different teams of chefs. Menu items will include beef xiao long bao, house made noodles, pork chop and egg fried rice, and specialties like the salted egg yolk custard lava buns.