- Ibérica has shuttered three of its five sites as part of an administration process with the group’s other two restaurants acquired by rival London-based Spanish operator Camino. Following reports earlier this month, Gordon Thomson and Stephanie Sutton of RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP were appointed joint administrators of Ibérica on 13 December. The administrators subsequently sold the group’s restaurants in Farringdon and Victoria to Camino, preserving part of the business and approximately 40 jobs. Ibérica’s remaining London restaurants in Canary Wharf and Marylebone, as well as its outpost in Leeds, have closed.
- Chotto Matte has closed its Marylebone restaurant to focus on its Soho flagship and its upcoming Manchester site. In a statement provided to Restaurant, the Kurt Zdesar-led group said that the 60-cover Paddington Street site did not fit with the rest of its portfolio due to its small format. The restaurant is understood to have closed last month having launched in 2022 within the space that was previously home to Zdesar’s Italian bakery concept Fucina.
- The Clove Club founder Isaac McHale is opening a new European restaurant close to his two-star flagship. Called Bar Valette, it will be located on Kingsland Road on the site of the former Two Lights restaurant, which was backed by The Clove Club team, and will be less formal than The Clove Club. Launching under the direction of head chef Erin Jackson Yates and restaurant manager and sommelier Wilem Powell, both of whom have worked at The Clove Club, the 40-cover restaurant will take cues from McHale’s love of southern French and simple Spanish cooking, with some ideas and influences from The Clove Club’s back catalogue joining the menu.
- Chef Simon Rimmer’s restaurant business was more than £500,000 in debt when the business closed, documents have shown. Documents filed by administrator Begbies Traynor with Companies House show that the business, which owned two restaurants at the start of the year, owed HMRC an estimated £458,873 in unpaid VAT and PAYE. Other debts included £13,164 to Royal Bank of Scotland while trade creditors are owed an estimated £75,000, with three claims totalling £1,923 received by the administrators to date. Consumer creditors who have paid for restaurant vouchers and gift cards are estimated to be owed around £35,790, according to the filing.
- Chef Carlo Scotto is back in the kitchens after a break with a new restaurant at Crazy Bear Hotel in Beaconsfield. BEAR by Carlo Scotto will open in spring next year and is described as pushing ‘the boundaries of creativity and taste’, while prioritising responsible sourcing. The restaurant will have an open and offer counter dining and will serve a tasting menu that takes a farm-to-plate philosophy, and which will take in Nordic, Asian and Arabic flavours.