New York-based Altamarea Group to enter UK with Chop Shop restaurant launch

By Peter Ruddick

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags St james Property Restaurant

Altamarea Group is to enter the UK with the launch of a new concept - Chop Shop
Altamarea Group is to enter the UK with the launch of a new concept - Chop Shop
The Crown Estate has announced it has signed a deal with US-based restaurant operator Altamarea Group to bring a new concept - Chop Shop - to a site in the St James's development in Haymarket.

The group will take up a 10-year lease on the entire ground floor and basement of 66 Haymarket for the company's first restaurant venture outside the US.

Rowley's steak restaurant owner Will Guess will be helping to develop the concept.

The 2,350sq.ft site is part of the £500m development of the area between Regent Street and Haymarket in the capital.​ 

The ambitious project is designed to create a 'premier central London shopping and dining destination' and a number of high profile deals have already been made with restaurant and bar operators, including with the San Carlo Group.

Altamarea Group

Altamarea Group, founded by Ahmass Fakahany and leading chef Michael White, currently operates seven restaurants in the US, including Marea and Ai Fiori in New York.

"Altamarea Group has achieved great success in the US and we believe their imaginative approach will fit perfectly with our ambition to create a new destination for dining in St James’s," said Anthea Harries, portfolio manager for The Crown Estate.

"It is great to be able to announce this deal, which represents another major step forward in our transformation of St James’s."

Managing a portfolio valued at more than £8bn, property business The Crown Estate manages and enhances the value of property owned by the Crown. Over the past ten years the firm has paid nearly £2bn to the Treasury. 

Chop Shop

Altamarea Group, which is recognised by the Relais & Chateaux group, has appointed Will Guess - the restaurateur who took over Rowley's steak restaurant on London's Jermyn Street from his father - to help develop the Chop Shop concept which is expected to launch late summer.

Ahmass Fakahany, co-founder of Altamarea Group, added: "Having seen The Crown Estate’s ambitious plans for St James’s, we are convinced that this part of London will soon be one of the country’s most exciting restaurant quarters.

"With our talented team, we look forward to bringing a unique concept restaurant to this fantastic part of the West End."

Related news

Show more

Follow us

Hospitality Guides

View more

Generation Next