There are some London restaurants whose closure is announced, accompanied by a sense of "well it was on the cards". That's definitively not the case with Victor Garvey at the Midland Grand, which has not only been open for just six months, but has also been in receipt of great reviews and doing good business.
It was a shock, therefore, to both the chef himself and his restaurant staff when the restaurant ceased trading with immediate effect this week, and it seems was due to circumstances entirely beyond their control. "It's never fun when this happens," Garvey told Hot Dinners when we talked to him yesterday, "but the good news is that all suppliers are being paid and all the employees are being paid and redistributed across various outlets."
We understand that Marriott, who own the Renaissance St Pancras where the restaurant is situated, is taking over both the restaurant and the bar but there are no details about their plans for them.
As for Garvey, there is a glimmer of good news on the horizon as the chef has just signed the lease on a new restaurant in the heart of Marylebone. There's not much he can reveal just yet in terms of details but we're told that the food is going to be ingredient-led. Think spiny lobsters from the North West coast of France, live langoustines from Scotland and chickens from Langue. He talks about it being a "culmination of 25 years of his career...I'm going to be cooking whatever I want to cook."
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