Romain Bourrillon will open Bistro Cocotte in Soho, which is described as being an entirely new restaurant with its own identity rather than an extension of Cocotte.
The new restaurant will become part of the newly-formed group Maisons Vivantes, a house of chef-led restaurants in London that is described as being built with an aim to showcase and grow the country’s most exciting talents.
The new group will oversee the Cocotte restaurant group as well as Jusu Brothers, the two-strong restaurant brand that Bourrillon joined in 2023, and Casa Felicia, the Queen’s Park restaurant Bourrillon co-founded alongside head chef Francesco Sarvonio.
Sarvonio will also lead NAPO, a new Neapolitan caffè and gelateria opening in Farringdon in November that will also be part of the Maisons Vivantes family.
Also part of the group will be 61 Charterhouse St and AREE, the two new restaurants due to open in London in October this year and Notting Hill next year respectively in partnership with former Kiln head chef Karla Knowles.
Bourrillon grew up in his family’s restaurant in Ramatuelle, near Saint-Tropez, and trained at Ferrandi in Paris. He later worked at East Village institution Lucien at 22 in New York, and was on the opening team of the first Bagatelle in the Meatpacking District before spending two years in the kitchens of two Michelin-starred Brussels houses, Le Chalet de la Forêt and Villa Lorraine.
In 2016 he opened Cocotte in Notting Hill, which has since expanded to five sites in the capital.
Bourrillon says that Maisons Vivantes ‘builds restaurants the slow way’, and are chef-led and founder-owned and designed to grow talent. Each restaurant in the group begins with a chef and a vision and works closely with farmers, fishermen and producers.
He says his intention is to grow Maisons Vivantes to house a handful of iconic restaurants, ‘each built and led by emerging talent given the room to lead’.
“We don’t open restaurants to grow,” he says. “We grow people, and restaurants follow.”
