El Bulli Alumnus’ Swanky Mayfair Bar and Restaurant Appears Closed After 9 Months

Gazelle, last summer’s much-hyped Mayfair restaurant, is closed, just nine months after opening.

Owned by mixologist and restaurateur Tony “C” Conigliaro and led by ex-El Bulli chef Rob Roy Cameron, the restaurant — which launched on Albermarle Street last July — promised a great deal. At the time, it was talked of as “a stylish dining and cocktail destination” which wanted “to create menus that [played] with convention, reworking ingredients to break down the barrier between bar and restaurant.”

Apparently, and not after an attempt to serve breakfast plates like oyster with strawberry; and pork cheek and pickled onion, it didn’t work. Chef Cameron is understood to have left the business in January this year; he is now working at Top Cuvée, the natural wine and small plates set-up, recently given a rave by the Evening Standard Magazine’s Jimi Famurewa.

Gazelle, which was accessed by a private lift, was separated across two storeys. The restaurant lived on the first floor; the cocktail bar was upstairs. It was via this layout, nothing else, that the barrier between restaurant and bar was “broken down.”

About the new restaurant, Conigliaro, who runs six other London bars and restaurants said last year: “I love Mayfair and wanted to offer something that would sit comfortably alongside what’s already on offer here... I really wanted to install the lift and give out guests that feeling of a private members club away from street level, without it actually being one. Am so happy we managed to fit one in!”

It was also stated at the time that the “food at Gazelle will be a change from the current offering in Mayfair. We’ve broken away from the 2/3 course or tasting menu format and just left it open for everyone to choose themselves. We want to create a space where guests can enjoy a unique dining and drinking experience with a kitchen that is not limited by genre.” The restaurant faced not insignificant competition from its neighbours, however. Albermarle Street is home to the likes of high-end Indian restaurants Gymkhana and Indian Accent; as well as Beck at Browns, Isabel, and Babbo.

It is unclear when and for what specific reasons the restaurant closed, but it is no longer accepting reservations via Bookatable, nor Open Table, and the phone line rings out. The website remains live, though its social media accounts have been inactive since 26 February.