High-profile bar sold to Chorion
High-profile new bar 10 Covent Garden has been sold and is set to be revamped only months after opening.
City Bars & Restaurants has disposed of the London venue for £2.75m after the company went into administration.
The site, which has five different zones, has been sold to Chorion, which owns 10 bars in the capital, including Tiger Tiger in Haymarket.
Chorion chief executive Nick Tamblyn told ThePublican.com it would be carrying out a minor revamp and renaming it Sway within the next four to five months.
The venue, which cost £1.75m to develop, has the women-only members' club All About Eve, a juice bar, restaurant, lounge bar and a bar modelled on the company's original 10 Room in Piccadilly.
City Bars & Restaurants called in the administrators to sort out financial problems that were triggered by a restaurant which opened three years ago.
It still owns the bar in Piccadilly and 10 Tokyo Joe's in Mayfair and now plans to continue developing the 10 brand in new sites.
Chorion was particularly interested in 10 Covent Garden's 3am licence, which was granted by Camden Council. The operator has been fighting the policy by neighbouring Westminster council, which covers the rest of the West End, to clamp down on late licences.
This month, the High Court backed Chorion's claims that Westminster should not have turned down an application for a 3am licence for its Loop bar in Hanover Square.
This opens the way for other operators to challenge the council's decisions in court and strengthens a broader legal battle by Chorion against its licensing policy as a whole.
Related stories:
City Bars & Restaurants in administration (May 13, 2001)
Profile of 10 Covent Garden (March 21, 2001
Chorion celebrates licensing victory (June 7, 2001)
