W'Sens to become restaurant for the Russian elite

Eastern European businessmen to launch restaurant for the Russian elite

The site which used to house the Pourcel brothers' fine dining French restaurant W'Sens in St James's, London, has been bought by three Eastern European businessmen and will re-open as a Russian/Ukranian restaurant with the wealthy Russian elite as its target market.

One of the founders of the new restaurant already owns successful restaurants in the Ukraine, one of which is the biggest restaurant in the country, with 600 covers.

The budget for the refurbishment is around £2m, which is the same as what renowned French chefs Jacques and Laurent Pourcel spent before opening the restaurant in December 2004. The restaurant will be set over a ground floor and mezzanine and will be decorated in a Russian baroque style. W'Sens has now closed for the refurbishment.

Steve Burns, property agent at Shelley Sandzer who acted for the vendor said, "They will redecorate with gold leaf and all sorts of Russian decoration". He added, "They hope to appeal to the likes of Roman Abramovich. There isn't anything like it in London yet and there's a huge market for people with a lot of money who want to spend it eating out in this sort of environment."

The as yet unnamed venue should open mid-summer and was bought for a premium of just under £400,000 with an annual rent of £190,000.

The menu is likely to include luxurious Slavic influenced dishes such as Blinis with Caviar and Salmon, Stuffed Fish and Suckling Pig with Homemade Pasta and Mushrooms.

In November 2006 Italian restaurateur Claudio Pulze announced his intention to go into partnership with the Pourcel brothers and to make the concept more mid-market.

However, the Pourcels then decided to sell the restaurant.