Leonid Shutov, the owner of London’s Bob Bob Ricard restaurant, has announced plans to invest £15m to open a new high end restaurant on the former Just St James site in Mayfair’s St James’s Street.
Shutov has reached an agreement to acquire the lease of the unit, which he plans to convert into a 250-cover, 20,000sq ft restaurant, provisionally called Biblioteka, with additional private dining rooms for a further 75 guests and a Champagne bar.
The new venture is due to open in 2015.
Shutov said: “The aim with Biblioteka, nestled in the heart of Mayfair, is to create London’s most celebrated restaurant interior inspired by some of the greatest libraries of the world - an iconic space built around the function of storing and displaying our vast collection of fine wine and champagne.
“There will be Michelin-star ambition. Not necessarily in the complexity of food – there is great beauty in simplicity – but in the precise execution and honed presentation.”
Davis Coffer Lyons acted on behalf of Legal & General on the deal.
