Sam and Eddie Hart are preparing to unveil a new look for London restaurant and members’ club Quo Vadis, including a new bar.
Ahead of the venue’s 90th birthday in November, they have been investing in a transformation of the interiors that includes a new members’ restaurant being created in part of the long bar on the first floor.
They have also restored and opened up rooms on the second floor which will have been merged into one space to create a new library bar for members.
This new bar will have panelled walls and ceilings painted a deep blue, complemented by a deep blue bespoke carpet throughout and upholstery in various shades of the colour. It will have a more electronic music focus.
The 25-cover restaurant on the ground floor will remain open to the public, with the bar area restored to being dining space. A new menu is being developed by the Harts’ business partner Jeremy Lee who has been at the helm of the kitchen since 2012.
Later this year, part of the ground-floor space will become a separate tapas bar after Sam and Eddie’s popular Spanish restaurant Barrafina in Frith Street closes this autumn because of the building’s redevelopment.
The 26-cover members’ restaurant on the first floor will have the same daily-updated menu as downstairs. It will feature a bespoke deep green wallpaper with opulent green velvet fluted banquettes and a suite of orange and dark tan leather dining chairs.
A small, glamorous snug bar is being introduced in the corner, with brass highlights, an eccentric green, white and black marble bar top and vintage green leather panelling.
Along the back wall will hang The Soho Tapestry by Quo Vadis’ resident artist John Broadley, who also illustrates the iconic menus and many of the motifs associated with the club. A riff on the Bayeux Tapestry, the work is a grand-scale pen-on-paper depiction of Soho and its many buildings and character.
Jeremy described the new members’ restaurant as “a brand new Soho dining room in a great old Soho institution that conjures thoughts of Michelangelo painting the Sistine chapel, only in this piece the cast and crew are rarely saintly but occasionally utterly heavenly”.
Quo Vadis’s signature Negronis, Martinis and other cocktails will remain in abundance for restaurant diners, and Sam and his wife Robin will continue to curate the wine list.
The front and centre of the first floor will remain a members’ bar and club area but “reimagined”, with a new bespoke mottled and veined grey marble-topped bar, complemented by a back bar clad in vintage mirror.
Members and their guests can relax in low banquettes in velvet, drum stools of tweed and dark navy barstools, with drinks on new marble-topped nesting tables.
A wood burning stove has been installed in the fireplace area, along with a dramatically curved vintage sofa and a hand-painted Campari mural on the wall.
Designers and architects Now London have worked with Irving and Co, who provide graphic direction, to create these new spaces.
Sam, who took over Quo Vadis with his brother in 2008, said: “We are extremely excited to be ushering Quo Vadis into its nineties with a huge number of thrilling developments.
“Bringing Barrafina into the building as well as giving the whole building a well-deserved makeover has been nearly two years in the planning. I can’t wait to see the finished result.”
After being closed for six weeks, Quo Vadis will reopen on September 12 and is taking restaurant reservations now.
Picture by Paul Winch-Furness.
