Heston Blumenthal, Jamie Oliver and
Gary Rhodes are reportedly candidates to oversee the revolving restaurant at the top of BT Tower, which is to be reopened for the first time in nearly 30 years.
The skyscraper, previously known as the Post Office Tower, has not had a restaurant open to the public since 1980, when the Top of the Tower venue closed after 14 years.
BT, which currently uses the 34th floor restaurant for corporate hospitality and company events, is now planning to reopen it in time for Christmas 2011, with seating for 60-70 diners,
according to the Sunday Times.
The company has begun searching for a big-name chef to oversee the restaurant, with Blumenthal, Oliver and Rhodes - who runs a restaurant on the 24th floor of Tower 42 in the City – top of the list, the newspaper says.
The revived restaurant will undergo a full refurbishment before it reopens, although one feature that will stay the same is the 10ft-wide revolving part of the floor that provides diners with a 360-degree view over the capital. It takes about 20 minutes to complete a circuit — roughly 10 minutes less than the London Eye.
Rhodes's manager Caroline Teeling today said the chef would “absolutely love to be involved”. “Funnily enough, it's something we have talked about a lot over the past few years - it is such an iconic building,” she told the Evening Standard.
BT’s chances of luring Blumenthal and Oliver look rather slimmer, with the former set to open a restaurant at the Mandarin Oriental in 2010 and the latter focused on the rollout of his Jamie’s Italian brand.
An interview with Gary Rhodes >> First Jamie’s Italian in central London to open ahead of plan >> Heston Blumenthal set to open first London restaurant >> Galvin at Windows, London >> More news, analysis and comment on Heston Blumenthal >>
By Daniel Thomas
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