Jeremy King to relaunch Le Caprice site as Arlington
The restaurateur confirmed the name change in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, alongside details on the new menu and design.
It comes after King announced last month that he had acquired the old Le Caprice site.
He previously ran and then owned the restaurant through the 1980s and 1990s with his business partner Chris Corbin, whom he would go on to establish the Corbin & King restaurant group with.
Le Caprice was later acquired by Richard Caring in 2005 and closed in 2020, although Caring continues to own the rights to the Le Caprice name.
King, who was ousted from Corbin & King last year, plans to adapt ‘old favourites’ from the Le Caprice menu for 21st Century tastes at Arlington.
He will also revamp the monochrome art deco interior including reinstating the mirrors behind the bar so diners seated there can watch the main restaurant behind without turning their heads.
According to King, the bill for refitting Le Caprice will be 'considerably higher' than the £30,000 he spent on its refurbishment in 1982.
“You know, I was 27-years-old when we opened [Le Caprice], and life unfolded in Caprice Holdings,” King tells the Mail on Sunday.
“So it's incredibly emotionally important, and I think it's also a historically important restaurant.”
Arlington is one of three new restaurant projects King is currently working on.
Following the launch of Arlington, he will open The Park, which is due to open in the new Park Modern building near London’s Kensington Palace Gardens next spring and will be in the grand cafés and brasseries mould that The Wolseley co-founder is known for.
He will follow this with a third restaurant that’s also expected to open next year. Reports previously suggested that King had planned to base it in the former NatWest bank opposite The Wolseley, but he now says this is incorrect and its location remains under wraps.
“It's a big restaurant. I'm constrained. So, I can't say where it is,” he tells the Mail on Sunday.
All three ventures are part of his new business group called Jeremy King Restaurants.
King lost control of Corbin & King following a prolonged and very public battle for ownership with its major shareholder, Minor International.
Minor now leads the group, whose estate also includes The Delaunay, Colbert, and the recently-launched Manzi's, under the new moniker of The Wolseley Hospitality Group.
