Temper shutters half its estate as operating company enters administration - updated

London-based steakhouse and barbecue restaurant group Temper has closed its restaurants in Shoreditch and Paddington, as well as its smash burger offshoot in White City, with its parent company understood to have entered administration
Temper's menu majors in steaks and tacos (©Temper / Casper & Cole)

Temper has closed its restaurants in Shoreditch and Paddington, as well as its smash burger offshoot in White City, with its operating company understood to have entered administration.

The closures leave the London-based steakhouse and barbecue restaurant group with three sites located in Soho, Covent Garden and The City, all of which continue to trade.

Restaurant has heard from industry sources that Casper & Cole, Temper’s operating company, recently entered administration.

Update (28/11): Documents filed via Casper & Cole to Companies House on 28 November confirm that the business has appointed administrators.

The group’s restaurant in Shoreditch and its Temper Burger site in White City, the latter of which only opened in April of this year, are both now listed as closed on Google.

Temper Paddington, which opened in December last year, has also closed, but is yet to be listed as such by Google.

However, all mentions of the restaurant have been removed from Temper’s website.

Temper was founded by Sam Lee de Lagonell and chef Neil Rankin back in 2016, with the latter subsequently leaving the group in 2019.

It opened its first site on Broadwick Street in Soho and followed this with Temper City in 2017, Temper Covent Garden in 2018, Temper Shoreditch in 2022, and, most recently, Temper Paddington and Temper Burger.

According to Casper & Cole’s most recent financial filings for the year ended 26 February 2023, the group was ‘continuing to perform well post-Covid’, with an underlying company EBITDA of £268,000.

However, the group made a loss of £40,749 for the period, which compared to a profit of £739,201 the year before.

Restaurant has contacted Temper for comment on the closures and administration, but is yet to receive a response.

In its original form, each of Temper’s restaurants had its own specific focus, with the original Soho site majoring on tacos and mezcal; the City site specialising in gin and curry; and Covent Garden focusing on house-cured meat, pizza and vermouth.

However, all restaurants now serve an almost identical food menu that majors in steaks and tacos.