One of London’s most famous restaurants will reopen in the spring of 2024 after closing at the beginning of this year.
Founded by the acclaimed interior designer Julie Hodges in 1969, the Notting Hill restaurant was a favourite among the west London celebrity set and counted the likes of Mick Jagger, Princess Margaret, and Carly Simon as regular visitors.
In the Eighties and Nineties, more famous faces joined the long list of regulars: Tom Cruise, Naomi Campbell, Princess Diana and Annie Lennox among them. Kate Moss celebrated her 17th birthday at the restaurant and Tina Turner danced on a corner table, leaving heel marks on its burnished top.
Julie’s was sold by later owners Timothy and Cathy Herring in January of this year, having only undergone a major refurbishment three years earlier, which itself followed a period of four years' closure. Savills was appointed to sell the freehold.
Fans will be pleased to learn that the restaurant will reopen under the stewardship of new owner Tara MacBain, a Holland Park local and Cordon Bleu-trained chef. Herself once a frequent customer, she will open the venue as a modern French brasserie in the first half of the next year, with 160 covers and a bold new look from designer Rosanna Bossom. Think yellows, golds, glazed table tops and bespoke chandeliers.
MacBain said she is determined to “bring the effortless elegance” of the original restaurant back to the forefront of London culture. Promised is an all day menu featuring seafood towers, oysters, and a theatrical martini trolley offering customers tableside cocktails. Whether the “G-spot” alcove table is making a comeback is as yet unknown.
MacBain said: “I feel so grateful for the opportunity to reimagine this iconic restaurant, especially one that is so close to my heart. Julie’s has become a West London institution and I look forward to continuing its legacy.
“It is also no coincidence that our launch team consists almost entirely of west Londoners — it is so important to me that everyone involved in the project holds Julie’s to the same esteem and that we continue its unique story. I am so excited to welcome both original fans and a new generation of diners through our doors.”
