Restaurant selling £1,100 bottle of red wine to open in former US embassy

By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter

A high-end restaurant selling bottles of red wine for £1,100 and a dish of beetroots for £11 has been given the green light to open in Mayfair. 

Le Caprice will run out of the former US embassy in Grosvenor Square seven-days-a-week after applying for a licence earlier this year.

According to a decision by Westminster council in October, the restaurant will be able to sell alcohol between 9am and midnight from Monday to Sunday. The restaurant will also be open to the public from 6am to midnight and serve 73 diners seated outside.

The council has also given permission for customers to use an outside seating area until 11pm each day despite opposition from one resident, who claimed the noise would wake up his children. 

During a meeting on October 31, Le Caprice’s lawyer said the company could not meet the demand to close the area off to customers 30 minutes earlier, saying it would have a significant impact on trade.

Westminster council said all tables in the terrace areas will need to be cleared by 11.30pm and the venue must be manned by security seven days a week. There will be no waste collections or deliveries between 11pm and 8am, according to the decision.

Le Caprice intends to operate seven days a week inside the Chancery Rosewood Hotel which is being developed into a luxury 137-room hotel with five restaurants, retail units, a spa and a 1,000-person ballroom, a separate application before Westminster council shows.

The restaurant is expected to run on the ground, first and basement floors. 

An acoustics survey carried out on behalf of Le Caprice’s owners concluded the proposed operation would not lead to ‘any adverse noise impact’ on residents.

Westminster council’s environmental health department has withdrawn its objection following amendments to the application. The Chancery Rosewood Hotel is expected to open in 2025.

Pictured top: A plan for the ground floor bar at Le Caprice (Picture: Caprice Holdings Limited/WCC)