Quique Dacosta closes in on site for London paella restaurant
According to BigHospitality's sister site MCA, the chef and the team at Iberica has applied to open within The Plaza building in 120 Oxford Street.
The premises comprises the ground floor (3,500sq ft) and the first floor (5,750 sq ft) of the corner of the building in Wells Street and Eastcastle Street.
Dacosta and the Iberica team intend to create a “very high end restaurant with an ancillary holding bar which will never occupy more than 15% of the site”.
Their initial plan is to create a restaurant with a total of 70 covers at ground floor and 110 in the first floor, all seated except for the small bar area.
MCA revealed in January that Dacosta hoped to launch the first of a group of restaurants under the name InPaella in the capital by the end of this year/at the start of 2018, before looking to expand the concept to further major cities around the world.
The new venture is backed by former Carluccio’s chairman and current Iberica director Stephen Gee; Iberica founder Marcos Fernandez and the restaurant chain’s finance director Sarah Winter. It is thought that Fernandez will help oversee the project.
It was understood that the new venture was looking to initially raise £4m to aid the opening of six restaurants under the new concept over the next five years.
Dacosta's Denia restaurant was ranked 49th on the World's 50 Best Restaurants list 2016, but dropped to 62nd on the 51-100 list in 2017.
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