There are grande dame hotels, and then there is Claridge’s. The Mayfair institution started life at 51 Brook Street in the early 19th century, with owners William and Marianne Claridge boldly turning their W1 townhouse into a hotel. By 1854, they had become successful enough to purchase five adjoining buildings—with the enlarged property attracting the patronage of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert (and, by extension, nearly every other European royal and head of state at the time).
It’s Oswald Milne, though, who originated the hotel’s distinctive aesthetic after its takeover by hotelier Richard D’Oyly Carte. In 1929, the British tastemaker transformed the lobby to suit Roaring Twenties tastes, designing the now-iconic main entrance (formerly obscured by a carriage drive) and tasking interiors expert Basil Ionides with filling the hotel’s common spaces with glass paneling and touches of gilded glamour. Cut to 1996, and Manhattan’s Thierry Despont extended Milne’s Art Deco scheme to the Foyer, too, installing a Dale Chihuly light that’s since lit up a thousand Instagram feeds.
When Bryan O’Sullivan Studio came on board to design the brand-new Claridge’s Restaurant, then, it only felt natural for them to lean into the hotel’s roots when reimagining the location previously occupied by Daniel Humm’s Davies and Brook. Think swathes of Calacatta Viola marble and pendant lamps inspired by the designs of Joseph Hoffman. “To be given this legendary space at Claridge’s is a total designer’s dream,” O’Sullivan tells Vogue of working on the restaurant, which opens its doors for the first time this month. “We immersed ourselves in the extensive archive for inspiration, with the goal of reimagining the restaurant as if it had always been part of the hotel’s fabric.”
Accessed via Davies Street, the restaurant will be open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with a distinctive, modern British menu: a meal might start with Dorset snails anointed with parsley followed by wild turbot Grenobloise, with a chocolate soufflé tart to finish. In full view while you dine? Some of the impeccable art from Claridge’s own collection, including pieces by Sean Scully and Richard Gorman. While the summer temperatures still hold, though, the best seat in the house might be on the terrace, which stretches the full length of the hotel, or even at the tortoiseshell bar, with a mezcal-spiked Peach Picante cocktail in hand.
Take a closer look at the restaurant and its signature dishes, below.
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