Quaglino’s promises late nights and music after £3m redesign

 
New design: the newly refurbished restaurant (Picture: Glenn Copus)

West End “grande dame” restaurant Quaglino’s has thrown down a sequined gauntlet to London’s nightclubs by laying on DJs and live music and not closing its doors until 3am.

The 85-year-old St James’s venue — the first public restaurant that a reigning British monarch dined in — relaunches next Friday following a three-month art deco makeover that takes it back to its louche Thirties dinner dance roots.

Des Gunewardena, chief executive of Quaglino’s owner D&D London, said: “People in London increasingly want a New York approach to going out for an evening. They want to go out, have a drink, some dinner and then have some live entertainment.

“You won’t have to leave to go and find a club to carry on your evening after your meal. The energy levels will go up with the music, people will get up and dance and before they know it, it will be 3am.”

Swinging again: Princess Margaret and Lord Snowdon at Quaglino’s in 1962

Stars being lined up for performances at Quaglino’s include Marianne Faithfull, Eliza Doolittle, Alison Moyet, Sinéad O’Connor and Beverley Knight. There will also be an all-female house band called High on Heels.

Most shows will be free for diners and drinkers at its two bars although some of the biggest names will be ticketed events. Live performances will start at about 10pm with sets typically lasting 30 minutes to an hour.

Quaglino’s will open until 1am from Tuesday to Thursday and until 3am on Friday and Saturday, making it one of the latest opening restaurants in central London. It will shut on Sundays.

Royal visitors: the Queen in 1956 (Picture: AP)

The 250-seat restaurant’s redesign, thought to have cost about £3 million, has been overseen by London-based Russell Sage Studio, which also worked on the Savoy Grill and the Zetter Townhouse. It is arguably the most spectacular reinvention yet for a restaurant said to have “had more facelifts than an ageing movie star”. One casualty is the Conran-designed Q-shaped ashtrays, which were often stolen.

The restaurant was opened in 1929 by Giovanni Quaglino and became a haunt of royalty in the Thirties when regulars included the future Edward VIII. Resident pianist Leslie “Hutch” Hutchinson became one of Britain’s first black showbiz stars.

In the Fifties Quaglino’s had a permanently reserved table to accommodate frequent visits by Princess Margaret, the Duke and Duchess of Kent and Princess Alexandra. The Queen visited in 1956.

In 1992 Sir Terence Conran spent £2.5 million on a refurbishment that included a huge seafood display known as the “crustacean altar”.

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