A vision in black & white: Le Caprice goes Stateside

Londoner Richard Caring, whose restaurant empire includes The Ivy, Le Caprice, Scotts and J Sheekey, is just a week away from one of the biggest days of his career. On Monday, October 26, he will open his New York version of Le Caprice at the Pierre hotel on the corner of Fifth Avenue and East 61st St.

The restaurant is now taking bookings and, assuming it picks up on the reputation of Caring's London eateries, it will pretty quickly be very hard to get a table unless you're Barack Obama or shooting Sex and the City 2 down the road.

Readers of The First Post might like to make a note of the reservations number: 001 212 940 8195. Just say Jesus gave it to you.

That's Jesus Adorno (above), director of London's Le Caprice, tucked away behind the Ritz, and a long-time favourite of London socialites.

Adorno has been overseeing the finishing touches to the New York restaurant which, with a long black bar leading from the revolving doors on Fifth Avenue to the restaurant area, and the walls decorated with black and white David Bailey photographs of Jean Shrimpton, will have the same monochromatic look as the London establishment.

That's not the only thing that will make visiting Londoners feel at home: the head chef is Michael Hartnell, who's gone to New York from another Caring establishment, Daphne's in Chelsea.

The opening will be celebrated in proper Manhattan style: Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue, is throwing an opening party and Caring is due to host another of his own, with a suitably starry Hollywood and Manhattan guest list.

The opening comes as Caring defies the credit crunch to deliver a 20 per cent rise in underlying profits at his London restaurants, according to a Sunday Times source.

But there is a downside to being Richard Caring: he is one of several prominent British businessmen believed to have lost money to the London derivatives trader Nicholas Levene, who has skipped town owing £70m.

And his London theatre-land fish restaurant J Sheekey has just been given the lowest marks - five red fish skeletons - in a new critical guide to restaurants serving endangered fish.

Sheekey's is in deep water for serving Dover sole, monkfish, tiger prawns and skate, all of which are on the list of 'fish to avoid', according to the the makers of the award-winning documentary The End of the Line. ·