Overview
The Square was a London fine dining restaurant, opened on 13 December 1991 in St James's. Since its opening, it had been co-owned by chef Phil Howard and wine expert Nigel Platts-Martin. It also earned its first Michelin star in 1994 and retained it from then on. After relocating to Mayfair in February 1997, The Square won a second Michelin star in 1998, which it retained until 2016, the same year when Howard and Platts-Martin sold the restaurant to a company held by Marlon Abela. It regained its first Michelin star in 2017. It closed on 31 January 2020, causing the restaurant to lose its star the following year.
Background
Former Oxford-educated lawyer Nigel Platts-Martin and chef Marco Pierre White, co-owners of Harveys, planned to establish a second restaurant in West End. Platts-Martin and White's partnership of the project fell through. Furthermore, profits of the critically acclaimed Harveys were less than expected, disappointing Platts-Martin.
Phil Howard graduated from the University of Kent with a degree in microbiology but then, out of passion, pursued a career in cooking. Before the project, Howard started working at Harveys as a chef de partie in 1989. White sacked Howard after nine months of working there. Howard moved to another restaurant, Bibendum, to work as a chef de partie under head chef Simon Hopkinson. Howard was then rehired by White in 1990 to work at Harveys, specifically to be trained for White and Platts-Martin's upcoming second restaurant.
1991–1997: St James's
Phil Howard and Nigel Platts-Martin, both inexperienced in operating a restaurant at the time, opened without Marco Pierre White, what became known as The Square at 32 King Street, St James's, SW1 on 13 December 1991 near St James's Square, which inspired the name of the restaurant. Howard became the head chef of The Square at the time of its opening, and his cooking style had been contemporary French with simplicity and elegance. A restaurant critic Jonathan Meades in June 1992, described the original St James's location as "big, spacious, quirky" and its interior design as "pretty startling and very boldly coloured" with "[a] giantess's ear-ring hang[ing] [at a] window" and multiple gold leaf decorations.
From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).