Galvins and Richard Corrigan to open restaurants at Harrods
Chris Galvin’s wife Sara will be in charge of opening and running what will be Galvin Restaurants’ fifth restaurant in the capital in March.
The 55-cover bistro-style Galvin Demoiselle will occupy an elevated position over the store’s Fruit and Vegetable Hall and will serve a mixture of signature Galvin dishes such as confit pork cheeks and tarte tatin alongside exclusive creations for the restaurant.
Galvin told BigHospitality she was excited to be in charge of a project for the first time and of her enthusiasm for the new site, chosen because it fitted the Galvin ethos and also helped the group's even geographical spread across the capital.
She said: "The Harrods Food Hall is incredible and that's why we thought it was a really special place to be. We hadn't thought about being in a department store before, but this did give us an opportunity to do something a bit different.
"With all of our restaurants we have made a conscious decision about where we go and we see them as a collection of different restaurants rather than a roll-out of one concept. We open restaurants where we feel we are making a difference and when we saw how Harrods' restaurants director was trying to put the store on the map in terms of food, we decided to take a look. I also love to shop which is why I nudged Chris and Jeff towards this."
Second Bentley’s
Following in May will be the opening of what will be the second London outpost of Corrigan’s seafood restaurant Bentley’s.
Situated on the site of the Sea Grill in the Meat & Fish Hall, the 25-cover Bentley’s will serve seafood and fish, including hot rock oysters and seafood cocktails and pies and will take inspiration for its style from the restaurant’s Piccadilly site.
Paul Goodale, director of restaurants at Harrods said the two new openings marked an exciting start to the year and followed an eventful 2011 with the launch of Thomas Keller’s pop-up restaurant and the opening of a new tea room and steakhouse in the store.
“These openings signal our long-term plans to build partnerships with the industry’s most respected chefs and to further strengthen our portfolio of 28 restaurants,” he said.
