Gaucho to open Covent Garden restaurant as steak success continues
COVENT GARDEN has been the home of ballerinas, opera singers and street performers for more than a century – and it will soon add Argentinian cowboys to its cast with the opening of a new outpost of steakhouse favourite Gaucho.
The man behind the group, Rare Restaurants’ boss Martin Williams, told City PM he would be taking over a site on James Street just off the famous shopping square in the heart of Theatreland.
It will be the brand’s first London opening in a number of years. It is due to open in June of this year.
It will also be an exclamation point for Gaucho which Williams – a former MD of the firm – and partners bought out of administration in 2018. Williams told City PM his Rare Restaurants group – which includes City and Canary Wharf’s M Restaurants – saw EBITDA north of £10m last year, on turnover of £73m, up from £55m when he took the reins.
The new opening, he said, “demonstrates our confidence in London,” Williams told City PM
“Many brands that have twenty restaurants, like we do, may just be focussing on national expansion,” he said.
“But we’ve had so much success, and are so well-known and so well-loved in London, that this is a reflection of confidence that our demographics and our regular guests love the brand, recognise the brand and will use it a lot.”
Williams is also opening a Gaucho restaurant in Newcastle after a highly successful launch in Liverpool earlier this year.