U.K.’s Leading Steak Chain Closes Sister Brand for Good

Hawksmoor will close the remaining two branches of Foxlow, its neighbourhood, lower-key restaurants, by 28 June, according to Bloomberg’s Richard Vines. Foxlow Balham and Foxlow Clerkenwell will both close, with the restaurant group focussing entirely on its eight Hawksmoor restaurants, six of which are in London.

Foxlow Soho closed on 18 April after selling its lease to Shaun Presland’s upcoming Japanese restaurant, Pacific; Foxlow Chiswick closed March 2018, and the Stoke Newington branch was closed in 2017. While co-founder Will Beckett was candid about the Chiswick and Stoke Newington closures simply not working out, in part due to “a couple of poor decisions,” the gradual shrinking of the portfolio stands in stark contrast to the sudden death and desperate recovery of larger, less acclaimed competitors — Cau and Gaucho among them.

Foxlow Balham earned a place on the area’s best restaurant guide, with contributor Josh Barrie writing:

Part of the Hawksmoor (read: very good steak) group, Foxlow has been dishing up plump ribs and fennel salads to anyone who can’t be bothered to get on the tube since 2015. The menu is purposeful and non-abrasive, with nuggets of real joy: the anchovies and goat’s butter on rye crisps show class; sirloin and rib-eye, both under £25, are hard to fault. Pair them with tomato salad and ‘nduja potatoes and suddenly Tuesday feels like Friday. Especially as Tuesday is BYOB night. There’s no corkage fee.

Beckett said, meanwhile:

After a fantastic six years we have made the decision to close the two remaining Foxlow restaurants. Once Soho closed, we started to receive further offers. We decided to sell Foxlow Clerkenwell and simultaneously close the Balham restaurant, which seems better to us than continuing to trade and leave staff, suppliers and customers in a period of uncertainty. We’ll now be focusing on making sure that those people are looked after in the right way.