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Corbin and King to launch Colbert, their third restaurant in a year

Corbin and King to launch Colbert, their third restaurant in a year[Updated 3/10/12 with soft launch and reservations line details]

The last twelve months must have been the busiest ever for Corbin and King - the uber-restaurant players responsible for London’s ultra-luxe cafes The Wolseley and The Delaunay. Just before Christmas 2011 they opened the doors on The Delaunay on Aldwych and barely  six months later they’d opened Brasserie Zedel - their massive eaterie for the people, just off Piccadilly.

The two openings couldn’t have been more different. The Delaunay was a room run on the same principles as The Wolseley - a horseshoe shaped zone for the A-listers and stuffed to the gills with their well-heeled fans. Zedel was more of a diffusion line for the duo - a huge Piccadilly basement restaurant with prices starting at a ridiculous £2.50 for soup.

Not content with those two massive openings, they’re now heading further west, away from their traditional central London base, to the SW1 heartland of Sloane Square where they'll open Colbert. Anyone following London’s restaurant market will know that this was the spot of the late, but not-necessarily lamented, Oriel which was infamously shut down after (allegedly) serving up a substandard meal to its landlord Earl Cadogan. This Oriel site was then the subject of apparently the most competitive tender London has ever seen but it’s thought that the pedigree of the Wolseley eventually swung the deal in Corbin and King’s favour.

Hot Dinners did a little investigating and managed to find out what Londoners - and more particularly Knightsbridge locals can expect when Colbert opens its doors this Autumn. Apparently it’ll be generically similar to the Wolseley, Delaunay and Zedel but it will be very much in the tradition of the St Germain café/brasserie such as Flore or Deux Magots. So, as you might expect, the menu will feature the traditional melange of dishes brasserie favourites, mostly served through the day, such as Oeufs sur le plats, croques, crepes etc. The restaurant will be an all-day, seven days a week affair and seat about 120, with more seats outside for another 20. It's being designed by David Collins who has worked with Corbin and King on The Wolseley, The Delaunay and Zedel.

The head chef will be Andrew Woodford (who's worked ay the Wolseley and Zedel) who will be under the guidance of Lawrence Keogh of The Wolseley while Dan Craig (also from The Wolseley) will be the General Manager.

For the opening of Brasserie Zedel, Rex Restaurants broke with tradition by choosing to engage with Twitter to promote and respond to frenzied speculation over its opening (and no doubt to ensure it filled its 240 seats). But we understand that they’ll return to their usual introspective approach for Colbert. As an insider there explained that it was slightly frightening that Colbert is so highly anticipated by a local clientele in need of good restaurants - but that it doesn't need to announce its arrival as a result.

So what’s next for the power restaurant players? They have a luxury hotel opening in Mayfair at 8 Balderton Street in 2014 and ostensibly nothing else in the pipeline - but who knows what might happen between now and then. As we were told, these three openings so close together weren’t planned and apparently it was entirely coincidental that these unmissable opportunities should come at the same time, although their genesis spanned over six years.

Soft launch details: 

Colbert will open on Monday 8 October 2012 for a soft launch preview period with reduced prices (we don't know quite what that'll be - but it should be a significant amount off your food bill at least). Reservations are now open on 020 7730 2804 - or by emailing reservations@colbertchelsea.com.

Colbert will open Monday 8 October for previews at 50-52 Sloane Square London SW1X 8AX. The official opening date is still to be announced.

Find out about more upcoming London restaurants

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