Claridge's Australian invasion

London's most mannered hotel, Claridge's, has confirmed that its summer hook-up with Manhattan bar Dante, owned by Australian hospitality pros Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson, is now permanent. "It was only meant to go for three months and then it was extended through the end of the year," says Pride of the initial pop-up which began in mid-2025. Then it was extended again. As of last month, after a brief renovation, it's now official.

Pride describes the ornate ceilings and gilded details of Dante Mayfair as "almost Rockpool Bar and Grill-esque". He'd know, having worked at the Sydney stalwart alongside Neil Perry in the late 2000s before he and Hudson left Australia in 2015 to buy the 100-year-old Dante in Greenwich Village and reconfigure it into one of the hottest bars in the world.

At first glance the Dante concept – all burgers, burrata and garibaldis –  isn't an obvious match for one of London's most London establishments; indeed, arguably the city's most glamorous art deco residence. The original Claridge's restaurant served a melange of British-French haute cuisine – a gouty excess of butter and grouse. Gordon Ramsay took over from 2001 to 2013, earning a Michelin star then losing it in 2010. L'Enclume's Simon Rogan was subbed in with a restaurant called Fera, focusing on foraged British ingredients, as was the vogue during the height of the Noma era. In 2021, Claridge's tried out another Manhattanite – Eleven Madison Park's Daniel Humm – but quickly turfed him when he insisted on turning the place vegan.[[Humm himself has since recalibrated his certainty that people are willing to pay big money for plant food. His flagship Eleven Madison Park clung to its 2019 vegan pivot for a further three years after a New York Times review described a mock-duck beetroot dish as tasting "like Lemon Pledge". But as of October last year, Humm reintroduced animal proteins in order to be more 'inclusive' (and no doubt claw back some of those lucrative corporate lunches).]] The hotel then ran the room on its own for three years. All fine dining, all chef-led.