Mount Street Restaurant
Before today’s gold and glitz of luxury retail and hospitality started taking over Mount Street in Mayfair over the past decade, the Queen Anne block on the corner of Mount and South Audley Streets stood out of place, offering drinks to local works in its Victorian pub from 1888 with original fixtures—a different gold.
Until 2022 when it was refurbished to establish the Mount St. Restaurant and its congenial sibling venue, The Audley Public House by Artfarm. The hospitality enterprise, steered by the prominent art connoisseurs Iwan and Manuela Wirth of Hauser & Wirth, brought with it an enlivened £50 million contemporary art collection and an array of modern artworks. This creates a riveting mise-en-scène, where each corner narrates some part of art history, alongside the dining. Diners’ attention spans are interrupted by masterpieces including works by Picasso and gastronomy and dining-themed works by Balthus, Warhol and Freud. There are also functional works, such as sculptor Paul McCarthy's whimsical tree-design table accessories and sublime lighting by Sophie Taeuber-Arp's lamps. Rashid Johnson's captivating Palladino mosaic floor, "Broken Floor," lays the foundation for the experience.
The three floors above the restaurant are an assortment of private dining rooms, The Curious Rooms. The Swiss Room celebrates the owners’ Swiss heritage and tradition of art and design. In the space, there is a hand-crafted European Oak floor finished by artisan Ian Harper, resembling the watercolours of Sophie Taeuber-Arp, and also features a series of her gauche drawings above the entrance. There are also four works of the celebrated Swiss Symbolist artist, Ferdinand Hodler, an artist not often found in British arts institutions, effectively rendering this dining room into a small museum for the artist.
Commanding the kitchen is head chef Jamie Shears, who worked both in Gordon Ramsey and Chris Galvin’s kitchens. His gastronomic exploration both works with the history of the building but is also an inventive spin on classic British dishes that include lobster pie and mock turtle terrine. Every plate that comes out of Chef Shears' kitchen carries a trademark touch of whim, promising a dining adventure that is as comforting as it is novel.