The Restaurant winners to open London Cocktail Club

The winners of the BBC's TV show The Restaurant with Raymond Blanc will open a cocktail bar in central London next month, Caterersearch can reveal.

JJ Goodman and James Hopkins, who won the final series of the reality TV programme last year, will open the London Cocktail Club on Goodge Street at the end of November.

Housed in the basement site previously occupied by the Manouche wine bar, the business is a partnership between Goodman, Hopkins and Blanc as well as his advisers on the Restaurant, David Moore and Sarah Willingham. London leisure specialist Restaurant Property brokered the deal for the site.

Goodman told Caterersearch the new site would be a development from the London Cocktail Club in Covent Garden, which the duo opened two years ago and will continue to run.

"The site is inspired by gin palaces of the 1800s and we will offer a cocktail list of around 35 base cocktails priced between £7 and £9, with a catalogue of around 150 gin cocktails," he said.

Interiors at the 50-seat London Cocktail Club will be developed by the B2 Design Group and comprise a mix between the contemporary and the historic, with quirky features such as an old phone box guests have to walk through to get to the main bar.

The food offer, meanwhile, will comprise a menu of "British fusion tapas dishes", which the duo have developed with the guidance of Pied à Terre head chef Shane Osbourne.

"It'll be mainly finger food and there'll be things like cheese boards, charcuterie and fish platters as well as special canapés," Goodman added. "There will also be a Mr Whippy ice-cream machine for desserts."

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By Kerstin Kühn

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