A London dining entrepreneur has saved the West End’s only kosher restaurant and plans to reopen it after a major makeover.
Restaurateur Lee Landau has bought the lease for Reubens which closed suddenly this year and has “significant” plans to revamp the venue.
It comes three months after the deli and restaurant in Baker Street shut “due to a family bereavement”.
The site had been popular with the Jewish community over its 46 years of trading, with high-profile fans such as the late film director Michael Winner. Mr Landau, who runs S Group, the parent company behind a collection of London kosher cafe and restaurant brands, has purchased the lease on the 3,376 square feet site and will reopen it as a kosher restaurant certified by the Federation of Synagogues. Jonathan Moradoff, of property agent Davis Coffer Lyons, advised on the lease sale.
Landau, who grew up in Golders Green, said: “I would visit Reubens as a child … and continued dining there in my adult life, so I felt even more motivated to try and save the last remaining kosher eatery in the West End.”
The 32-year-old said he is investing “significantly”. The revamped deli on the ground floor opens this week and will feature Reubens favourites such as salt beef sandwiches, schnitzel and chicken soup. The downstairs restaurant will relaunch in September with a complete new menu, including some existing old favourites.
Davis Coffer Lyons’ Moradoff said: “Reubens had become a culinary institution in the Jewish community over many generations, as well as for tourists enjoying attractions in the area. Lee Landau already has a very highly regarded reputation in kosher cuisine which puts him in a fantastic position to capitalise on the following that Reubens has established over so many decades in London.”
