"We haven't been able to make it work": Foxlow Chiswick to close this week

The duo will close the Chiswick outpost of the brand, leaving three remaining Foxlow restaurants – Soho, Balham and Clerkenwell.

A mailing to the restaurant’s database announces the closure, and asserts that as many staff as possible will be redistributed around the brand’s remaining restaurants.

 “We’re sorry to tell you that we have decided to close Foxlow Chiswick and will be closing the doors on March 18th after the lunch service. Although we’ve loved running the restaurant, and know that a good many of you have taken it to your hearts and become regulars, we haven’t been able to make it work.

“If you do [visit our other sites] we hope you’ll see some familiar faces as we’re trying to find places for as many of the fantastic staff at Foxlow Chiswick as possible.”

It is the second time Gott and Beckett have closed an underperforming Foxlow site. In January last year, the pair closed their more casual Hawksmoor spin-off on Stoke Newington Church Street, having opened it in April 2015.

“We’re not making any excuses about the wider trading environment or anything else,” said Beckett about the closure of the Stoke Newington site.

“We made a couple of poor decisions and just didn’t get everything as right here as we thankfully have at all our other restaurants.”

Foxlow has never performed as well as its sister brand, Hawksmoor’s.

In 2017, Underdog, owner of both brands, reported a £9m pre-tax loss for the financial year ending 31 December 2016, due to Foxlow having a “pretty tough time”. The Hawksmoor arm of the business made a pre-tax profit of £4.2m in the same period.

Hawksmoor, was launched in London's Spitalfields in 2006. The group has since expanded to six sites in the capital and one in Manchester, and has an Edinburgh opening in the pipeline for this summer.

It was also set to cross the pond late last year after securing a 14,000 sq ft site at New York’s World Trade Centre development, but the restaurant opening has been delayed until 2019.