Monday Bulletin: Motorino | Endo | Le Manoir

Catch up on the latest industry news stories of the week from the CODE Bulletin

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MOTORINO

Luke Ahearne (former Clove Club, Luca and Corrigan’s Mayfair chef Luke Ahearne, who won a Michelin star at Lita within a year of opening) and Stevie Parle are now readying to open a “huge new London-Italian” called Motorino at 1 Pearson Square in Fitzrovia next month. The restaurant will have 150 covers and its own destination bar overseen, as Town’s is, by Satan’s Whiskers’ Kevin Armstrong. Finer details of the menu and design are yet to be revealed, but a teaser image hints at a similar look and feel to Town only in yellow rather than Bottega green. The name, meanwhile, sounds pleasingly similar to Rotorino, Parle’s much missed Dalston Italian which shuttered in 2018.

LE MANOIR

Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons is closing for “a visionary redevelopment” in January, when Raymond Blanc will step down as chef patron after 41 years, and assume the role of lifetime ambassador. The Belmond property reopens summer 2027.

ROOT BATH

The Pony Restaurant Group is opening its biggest site to date – a branch of plant-led concept Root within the new Shires Yard development in Bath. Root is led by Josh and Holly Eggleton and co-patrons Rob and Meg Oakley-Howell. Opens October.

ENDO AT THE ROTUNDA

Endo Kazutoshi’s Michelin-starred restaurant Endo at the Rotunda has been forced to temporarily close following a fire at the Helios Building on 6 September. Nobody was hurt in the fire. Our thoughts are with Endo-san and all the team.

• That was quick – Bristol sandwich brand Sandwich Sandwich is opening a third London site on Tottenham Court Road in October.
   
• Paris Rosina is cooking at My Neighbours The Dumplings in Clapton on Wednesday 17 September. Tickets, £55. There will be rice pudding pierogi…
  
• The Bull Inn, Totnes, has launched the UK’s first Level 3 Award in Regenerative and Sustainable Hospitality, in partnership with The SRA and The Apricot Centre. The course runs one day a week for 12 weeks from 16 October. Details here.
  
• John Javier, previously of The Tent (at the End of the Universe) has joined Caia in Notting Hill as executive chef.
  
• Nathaniel Morley, AKA @nattycancook_ is to open his debut restaurant 2210, in Herne Hill on 22 October. On the menu, ackee and saltfish spring rolls.
  
• Noisy Oyster is launching a brunch menu, with a limited-edition fish bap from  now shuttered cult caff Norman’s, on the menu for two days only (27-28 September).
  
• The King’s Road is getting its first new pub in over 100 years. The Trafalgar, from the Three Cheers Pub Co, opens in a Grade II-listed former bank in October.
  
• Pophams Bakery in east London is to close its London Fields pasta restaurant on 30 October after six years.
  

WHAT WE’RE READING

Where to eat during London Fashion Week: The Good Food Guide

12 Standout Initiatives from CODE’s Happiest Places To Work

London’s restaurants “closer to boom than gloom”: Hardens

America’s best restaurants 2025: NY Times

THE DUMBWAITER

When Raymond Blanc came to England, he drove over in a racy Renault 12 Gordini that “purred like a cat” (“the girls loved it”). Not everybody arrives at Le Manoir in such high style, however: Oxfordshire locals rely on the trusty number 46 bus, a “lifeline” subsidised by Blanc since 2022. Good news, he will continue to subsidise it when Le Manoir takes a break in January. Chapeau, chef!

Spotted lunching at Clarke’s last week: comedy royalty Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. The Trip to Kensington?

Emma Barnett, meanwhile, was seen having dinner with Nick Jones and Kirsty Young at The Dover last week. Let’s hope she didn’t have to get up early the following day for Today programme duties.

Also in town: Post Malone, who paid a visit to Fallow.