Cult Russian Restaurant Follow-Up Delayed, Again [Updated]

Updated 23.04.19 — with details of another day, but also, apparently, an actual opening date.

Bob Bob Cite’s Twitter bio says “Good things come to those who wait.”

The long-awaited Russian restaurant also includes in that small section that it is scheduled to open in May this year, two months later than the latest of three opening dates given.

Way back in September 2017, Bob Bob Cite announced it would open in the Leadenhall Building (aka Cheesegrater building) in the City — in January 2018. In the autumn of last year an update was provided: the restaurant would instead open exactly a year late. The charismatic and gregarious owner, Leonid Shutov declared at the time, “Bob Bob Cité is currently running 12 months behind schedule — still an improvement on Bob Bob Ricard which was 18 months behind once finished!”

That date was subsequently scrapped, with a new date of March 2019 being given in October last year. Now it’s April.

Bob Bob Cite will open on to the public on Saturday 10 May, according to Bloomberg’s Richard Vines.

The project, whose cost last autumn had “risen to £11 million”, will instate one-time Raymond Blanc protégé (and former owner of Brasserie Chavot) Eric Chavot.

Shutov, whose original Bob Bob Ricard is a Soho favourite, describes the City as his favourite part of town, perfect for his second restaurant: “It is such a dramatic mix of old and new. It is home to some of the world’s best contemporary architecture and it gives us an opportunity to build London’s first truly urban, 21st-century luxury restaurant.”

Will it be worth the wait, if it ever opens?

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