If you’ve never had the pleasure of dining at the iconic and Michelin-starred Le Gavroche restaurant, located at 43 Upper Brook Street, you have only a few months left in which to do so, because Michel Roux has announced its imminent closure.
A series of public dinners, celebrating the menus over the decades since the restaurant opened, will start this November and go through until the restaurant’s closure in January 2024. Family members and familiar faces who have worked at Le Gavroche in the past will be making appearances at these events, and further details of all events will be available soon through Le Gavroche’s website.
Citing the need for a better work/ life balance, Michel, who has been at the helm of the restaurant since 1991, says: “This decision has not been made lightly. Le Gavroche means so much, not just to myself and the Roux family, but to the wider Gavroche team and our guests who have become family over so many years. The end of the current lease gave me the opportunity to assess and consider the future, and I’d like the restaurant to close on a high. It’s about turning the page and moving forward so I can focus on my family and other business ventures. This is not the end of Le Gavroche – the restaurant may be closing, but the name will live on, as will the Roux dynasty.”
Thus, the restaurant’s closure will enable Michel to focus on other Roux businesses and the Le Gavroche brand will be retained and used by the family for special events, both public and private. Michel will soon be taking Le Gavroche to sea in collaboration with cruise line Cunard, as well as continuing to create cookbooks and television series.
It’s no overstatement to say that Le Gavroche changed the face of the London restaurant and hospitality scene. Opened under the legendary Roux brothers, the late Albert Roux OBE and Michel Roux Sr OBE, in 1967, it was the very first restaurant in the UK to be awarded, one, two, and then three Michelin stars.
The restaurant today holds two Michelin stars (the longest restaurant in the UK to do so), alongside a host of honours, ranging from inclusion in various World’s 50 Best lists to the Laurent Perrier Award of Excellence, Tatler Restaurant Awards – Most Consistently Excellent Restaurant, and a Lifetime Achievement Award for its Chef Patron, Michel Roux. Le Gavroche is internationally recognised for its culinary excellence, illustrious pedigree, and inimitable guest experience. Its iconic position is all the more remarkable when you consider the events of the five decades through which it has existed: recessions, depressions, IRA bombings, the Covid-19 pandemic, the introduction of online consumer reviews and blogs, and the proliferation social media.
It will, without question, be missed.
