A summer residency by the Greenwich Village bar became permanent in June, when Claridge’s Restaurant closed and reopened as Dante Mayfair under Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson.
Claridge’s Restaurant served its last dinner on 10 May 2026. In June the room reopened as Dante Mayfair, a permanent restaurant and bar run by Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson, the Australian couple behind Dante in New York. It follows years in which the room was led by big-name chefs, Simon Rogan and Daniel Humm among them, and Claridge’s managing director, Thomas Kochs, has put the aim for its replacement plainly: he wants it to be the living room of Mayfair.
A Greenwich Village café, rebuilt
Caffe Dante opened on MacDougal Street in Greenwich Village in 1915, a meeting place for Italian immigrants talking over espresso about home and politics. Mario Flotta Sr took it over in 1971 and stayed for 44 years. When Pride and Hudson bought it in 2015 they kept the name and the photographs of past regulars on the walls, and added a spritz and negroni programme to the coffee. In 2019 the Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards named it World’s Best Bar. A second New York site followed in the West Village, and then Dante Beverly Hills, on the ninth floor of The Maybourne Beverly Hills, a sister hotel to Claridge’s.
Dante first came to Claridge’s for a residency planned to run from 30 June to 31 July 2025. The hotel’s May announcement describes it as having stayed in residence since, and the permanent restaurant followed.
Art deco bones, a lounge for a room
During the residency, Maybourne’s own account says, Dante replaced soft jazz and mirrors with low light, soul and sixties rock and roll, and hung large black-and-white prints. For the permanent room the hotel’s art deco structure stays, with a decor update to make it feel more like Dante and seating that Pride wants “more lounge-y, more accessible”. Pride has said he means to bring “an impish sense of fun to Davies Street”.
A Josper grill and a Martini hour
A new Josper grill sears fish, meat and seafood over fire, alongside a raw bar, fresh pasta and salads, and a wine list that skews Italian. Claridge’s lists shrimp cocktail, Carlingford oysters, lobster linguine, chicken alla diavola and the Dante smash burger among the dishes. The residency opened on the Dante negroni, and the Garibaldi, Campari with Dante’s “fluffy” orange juice, was one of its signatures. The permanent restaurant is aiming for a Martini hour instead, with live music in the evening.
Breakfast is served daily from 8am to 11am, and the all-day menu runs from noon until 9.30pm from Sunday to Wednesday and until 10.30pm from Thursday to Saturday. Parties of nine or more book through the events team, which offers three set formats: a weekday breakfast, a family-style menu served for the whole table, and a three-course choice menu. The restaurant names intimate wedding ceremonies, company cocktail hours, birthdays and brand launches among the occasions it takes.