This month, Jeremy King will open the Park, an all-day restaurant in Bayswater. It is the second of three big 2024 openings for the lauded restaurateur, who was behind the heydays of some of London’s most celebrated restaurants such as Le Caprice, the Ivy and the Wolseley. It follows the launch of Arlington in January, King’s modern reboot of Le Caprice, once a favourite with the stars from Diana, Princess of Wales to Mick Jagger.
Later in the year he’ll be reviving another stalwart, Simpson’s on the Strand. All this after the devastating events of 2022 , when King was ousted from Corbin and King, the restaurant empire that also included the Delaunay and Brasserie Zédel, which he had built up over decades with his business partner Chris Corbin. Minor International, the company’s major shareholder, had previously forced the business into administration, then outbid King in an auction in which it sold for more than £60m.
“I’m so delighted he’s done it,” says Trevor Gulliver, a co-founder of St John restaurants. “The whole story is great theatre, with Jeremy coming out the other side triumphant.” Over the decades, King has garnered respect and accolades in the hospitality industry and he is known for upholding what Martin Kuczmarski, the founder of the Dover restaurant in Mayfair, describes as “old-school hospitality, at very high levels”.
“Jeremy confidently operates in a way that has never gone out of fashion: he always thinks about his customers.
