Bob Bob Ricard is an iconic restaurant situated on Upper James Street within the heart of London’s Soho area.
Bob Bob Ricard has been a popular haunt for guests since it first opened, but keen to keep it at the forefront of the hospitality, it has recently unveiled a stunning new dining space.
The Club Room is an extraordinary dining area, situated on the lower ground floor of the venue. The restaurant caters for 74 guests and serves up a mouth-watering selection of dishes which will keep diners coming back for seconds.
Bob Bob Ricard Owner, Leonid Shutov, said:
“At the Club Room we want to offer the class and sophistication of old-school dining clubs like Annabel’s but without the need for membership. We aim to reach customers who wish to have a lively night out without having to compromise on the quality of food, wine or service. It is a very grown up club.”
The Club Room was constructed by WFC, an award winning fit-out contractor who specialises in delivering innovative projects for the UK leisure industry. WFC has been in operation for more than 30 years and within this time has delivered many prestigious projects including Aqua & Hutong at The Shard; The Delaunay in Aldwych; and various Aubaine locations. WFC has built up an excellent reputation for meeting deadlines and budgets and every contract is overseen by a director who takes responsibility for the project.
Explaining the reason behind introducing the new dining space to the already successful Bob Bob Ricard offering, Leonid said:
“We found that customers were increasingly coming into the restaurant for special occasion dining. What they seemed to enjoy was the fact that we are old-school in terms of delivery and ambience, yet at the same time our restaurant had a certain liveliness to it that many other restaurants of a similar quality do not have. So this project was for us, an opportunity to create an environment that was even livelier than the main dining room.
“The project took around a year, to a year and a half, to complete. During this time we kept the restaurant operational as we didn’t want to shut it down whilst work was taking place. In order to work around potential disruption we carefully planned the programme of works and timed the most disruptive work to take place during Bob Bob Ricard’s quieter times.
“This was the first time that we had worked with WFC. The work ran smoothly and I think they are an absolutely fantastic contractor and one of the best that I have worked with in the UK.”
The Club Room is meticulously executed and features the famous Bob Bob Ricard luxury booths tiered around a small atrium with mahogany-inlaid backgammon flooring, which becomes the centre of life and activity for the room.
The decadent décor is accentuated by leather banquettes, burgundy marble tables, bespoke Ikat wallpaper and hand crafted copper metalwork. There is also the notorious ‘Press for Champagne’ button on every table, demonstrating the luxury, style and cheekiness on offer at such an exciting venue.
Noble Russell Furniture was once again asked to manufacture the bespoke leather banquette seating for the new Club Room at the vibrant luxury Soho restaurant. The seating awarded ‘booth of the year’ in 2009 by Wallpaper magazine is upholstered in a combination of fine Italian and American hides – in a deep red and gold, edged with metallic piping. The oak legs are limed, lacquered and stand on polished brass feet.
Originally designed by the revered David Collins Studio, the basement area previously known as Bobby’s Bar continues to follow Collins unique design. The bar stools, also by Noble Russell but part of the original Bobby’s bar interior some 6 years earlier, are still in perfect condition, a testimony to the high levels of quality, finishing and consistency set by Noble Russell Furniture.
With champagne flowing and music playing, the atmosphere at Bob Bob Ricard easily becomes vibrant and electric, so care and attention was paid to ensure noise levels could be maintained at the venue, as Leonid explained:
“Acoustics are paramount. Our guests want to easily carry on a conversation around the table, so no expense was spared to ensure they can be heard over the music without raising their voice – even with the night in full swing.”
Leonid added:
“We want the Club Room to become London’s ultimate destination for lively dining, music and champagne. Bob Bob Ricard is a stand-alone restaurant and not part of a larger group. We’re quite hands on and we’re quite old school, so everything we do has a certain eccentricity to it and is different from what you can find elsewhere.”
The Club Room adds an exciting new dimension to the original Bob Bob Ricard restaurant, which has steadily grown in popularity amongst London’s smartest diners. The restaurant, which is consistently ranked by Zagat among the top five dining room interiors in London, serves a luxury English and Russian menu to an eclectic clientele in London’s most glamorous all-booth dining room.
Dishes on offer include the old bay crispy quail; the braised shoulder of lamb; beef wellington for two; filet mignon Rossini; and the baked sole with vermouth sauce. Main courses are complemented by a range of starters such as the Russian salad & truffle, as well as an extensive offering of sides, including crushed peppered sweet corn and truffled mash potato.
If desserts are more your thing, then fear not, for Bob Bob Ricard has a bountiful offering when it comes to puddings, from the trio of crème brulées; to Eton mess en perle; warm chocolate fondant; and the wheel of Saint Marcellin soft cheese. Oysters, caviar and a fish and vegetarian offering also round out the menu at Bob Bob Ricard.
For those with less time on their hands, an express lunch menu is also available at Bob Bob Ricard, with the likes of 28 day aged Scotch beef onglet; venison steak tartare; and poached loch duart salmon with warm cucumber dill & mustard, cropping up on the menu.
Bob Bob Ricard is well known for popping corks on large quantities of fine wines and vintage champagnes, due in part to a keen wine pricing policy. In fact, Bob Bob Ricard pours more Chateau d’Yquem than any other establishment in the UK.
Bob Bob Ricard has a great selection of wines, from reds and whites to rosé. Wines include estate chardonnay; Sauvignon Blanc; Brunello di Montalcino; and Clos Mireille Rosé, with most available by the bottle. The drinks menu also includes sweet wine and port.
The Club Room is open only in the evenings for lively dining, music and champagne – sometimes with a little entertainment – and had a soft opening throughout July.
Leonid said:
“This was an opportunity to raise our restaurant up another notch and demonstrate what we can deliver to our customers. We are very pleased with The Club Room.”
The Club Room is open Monday to Saturday, 7pm to 1am and is closed on Sundays. Tables of four, six and eight are available and no guests under 18 will be admitted. The Club Room also enforces an upscale dress code.
For more information about Bob Bob Ricard, please visit: www.bobbobricard.com or to make a reservation, please email: reservations@bobbobricard.com.
WFC
WFC is a leisure industry fit-out contractor working on a range of high profile projects. Founded in 1976 WFC pride themselves on their commitment to quality which is visible through the projects they have been involved in to date. The company have been instrumental in numerous developments in London during their 38 year life span, including The Shard’s Aqua and Hutong Restaurants, which offer amazing views of the capital and all restaurants for Corbin & King including Delaunay, Zedel, Colbert and the recently completed Fischer’s.
WFC was the main contractor on Bob Bob Ricard Soho. Speaking to Premier Hospitality, Contracts Director, Nick Moffat said: “WFC were brought on board by Keytask, and negotiated the £2.2M refurbishment contract of Bob Bob Ricard with the client, Leonid Shutov.”
The first challenge WFC faced in not having a design team on board, was interpreting the client’s brief, and bringing together the right manufacturers, suppliers and subcontractors who could satisfy the very high quality standards expected by BBR within the timescales.
The programme expectations were also a challenge in keeping the restaurant trading at all times whilst the new front of house areas were created.
A brief closure at the early stage of the project allowed for a full refurbishment of the kitchen areas, including all new catering equipment installation.
Glass Design Ltd
Glass Design Ltd specialise in the supply and installation of all flat glass for interior fit-out projects. The company operate in the retail, residential, high-end residential, bars, clubs and hotel sectors and has been in operation for 55 years.
Over the years Glass Design Ltd has worked on many prestigious projects from The Tower in Vauxhall, to the Corinthia Hotel, the Goucho Club and Kingston Riverside schemes. Most recently Glass Design Ltd has been involved with Bob Bob Ricard.
Glass Design Ltd Managing Director, Vince McDonnell, said:
“Working on projects like Bob Bob Ricard is very important to us. Working on high-end schemes such as this, help to keep us where we want to be, at the premier side of fit-outs.”
Vince added:
“At Glass Design Ltd we are most proud of the quality of our workmanship as well as our longevity within the industry.”
Stan Tarver Shopfitting & Joinery
Stan Tarver Shopfitting & Joinery design, supply and manufacture bespoke joinery and metal work for the retail, restaurants and leisure industry. The company has been in operation for 21 years and within this time has worked on many high profile projects, including Fortnum & Mason, Harrods, and The British Library, to name but a few.
Working on Bob Bob Ricard, Stan Tarver Shopfitting & Joinery provided all the manufacturing drawings, for both joinery and metalwork.
Stan Tarver Shopfitting & Joinery Company Owner, Stan Tarver, said:
“We worked on the original Bob Bob Ricard project seven years ago and including interim work we have recently been involved in this new project. We took this project from start to completion, working closely with the main contractor. It has been a very prestigious job for us – a great example of the type of work we do.”
Stan added:
“At Stan Tarver Shopfitting & Joinery we pride ourselves on our quality and service.”
Tom Bagley Groundworks
Tom Bagley Groundworks is a company specialising in all types of groundwork across the board, including shallow and deep drainage, road and sewers, reinforced concrete, slabs and structures and remedial works. Established over 20 years ago, the family run business has gained years of experience and a positive reputation for their establishment.
Tom Bagley has finalised several other projects including the full redevelopment of an old oil refinery site, which has been converted into a compost construction plant. This was a large development, involving the installation aspects, drainage and reinforcing thousands of square metres of concrete slabs.
Developments on Bob Bob Ricard involved completing the internal strip-out, soft strip and stripping the structure back to the original shell. Tom Bagley also installed the entire cast iron underground fringe in addition to excavating down in the basement and placing in a lowered platform for the dance floor.
Speaking to Contract Manager of Tom Bagley Groundworks, Steven D’Arcy about the project, he said:
“It was very important to us working with Bob Bob Ricard. It opened up more opportunities for us, since the development on the restaurant we have worked on another four projects including three which we completed in the space of around four to five weeks. The other we are currently working on at the moment.”
When asked what the company prides themselves upon, Steven replied:
“We pride ourselves in providing a quality product to each and every client.”
Precious Marble
Precious Marble is a company specialising in the fabrication of marble worktops, granite, quartz and porcelain. Having been in operation for four years, the establishment has supplied many various surfaces for numerous clients.
Precious Marble’s primary business is within high end residential buildings, the majority of work that they have undergone is within that field. Working with Bob Bob Ricard was just one of their exciting projects, providing a number of bar tops, marble wall panels and table tops.
Premier Construction caught up with one of the Directors of Precious Marble, Evelyn Oral, to ask a few questions on the developments. Evelyn said:
“It was a great opportunity to work with Bob Bob Ricard, we were honoured to be chosen to work on the restaurant.”
Previous projects that Precious Marble has developed include Harrods and the luxurious Savoy Hotel in London. During their involvement with the Savoy, the company focused on the River Rooms whereby they restored and maintained all of the marble in those particular rooms.
When asked about what the company values itself on, Evelyn claimed:
“We pride ourselves on our high quality of service and product. We aim to please and keep clients 100% satisfied.”
