Acclaimed London Restaurant Group Announces Closure of Its Five Restaurants

The novel coronavirus’ impact on London restaurants continues: The Woodhead Restaurant group, owned by restaurateurs Daniel Morgenthau and Will Lander, has announced the closure of Quality Chop House, Quality Wines, Portland, Clipstone, and Emilia until further notice, in the latest example of the London restaurant industry using its initiative in the face of the evolving novel coronavirus outbreak.

In an email, Lander and Morgenthau said: “We have taken the very sad decision to close all our restaurants across the Woodhead Restaurant Group until further notice.”

They emphasised the decision had been made based on the health and safety of the staff and the restaurants’ guests. “We feel the health and safety of our team and guests has to be our primary focus at this time and in these different circumstances. We have colleagues from all across the world who have made huge sacrifices to work and live in London.With travel becoming increasingly difficult, it doesn’t feel right to have them working in a restaurant when they should be making a plan to be around their friends and families.

“This decision will allow us to make the best possible provision for them and also guarantee we are not contributing to the spread of this virus to our guests from today onwards - we have always been totally committed to the most hygienic practices possible but sadly there is no greater guarantee of this than ceasing to operate as a restaurant.”

Like other businesses in London who are using delivery for the first time or who are conjuring new ways to retail their product as social distancing measures are stepped up, Woodhead said it would be working on providing a delivery/take away option across our sites “so that our teams might provide a form of hospitality to suit these unique times and bring a bit of what we do into your home.”

The owners added too, that they would be retailing the full wine portfolio. “Our wine cellars just became a wine shop as well, so let us know if you need any bottles for getting through all this... We will have updates on this shortly.”

Finally they confirmed that the butcher, food shop, and deli in Clerkenwell (The Quality Chop House Shop) remained open seven days a week.