Harvey's (restaurant)

Harveys
Former location of Harveys, in Wandsworth
Restaurant information
Established	1987
Closed	August 1993
Head chef	Marco Pierre White
Food type	French cuisine
Rating	Michelin stars
Street address	2 Bellevue Road
City	London
Postal/ZIP Code	SW17 7EG
Country	United Kingdom
Coordinates	51°26′44″N 0°09′58″W / 51.445616°N 0.166041°W / 51.445616; -0.166041

Harveys was a restaurant in Wandsworth, London run by chef Marco Pierre White between 1987 and 1993. Its French cuisine was warmly received by food critics, and it was named Restaurant of the Year by The Times in 1987. It was where White became the youngest chef ever to win two Michelin stars.

The restaurant opened in January 1987. It was a joint venture between chef Marco Pierre White and restaurateur Nigel Platts-Martin. The two had met while White was head chef at Lampwick's restaurant, and Platts-Martin subsequently purchased Harveys and placed White in charge of the kitchen. Platts-Martin later said that "it was in a terrible state but I bought it out of youthful optimism and invited Marco to become head chef. I knew Marco was an extremely talented chef who cooked sensational food but I was very unsure how things would turn out." A year after opening, the restaurant was closed in order to be renovated. David Collins was the architect, who had previously worked on Pierre Koffman's La Tante Claire.

Several chefs worked at Harveys who went on to be successful elsewhere, including Philip Howard, who won two Michelin stars at The Square, and Gordon Ramsay, who worked at Harveys between 1988 and 1991 and went on to become White's protégé at the restaurant and subsequently own a restaurant empire. White once described the team working at Harveys as "the SAS of kitchens". The restaurant was frequented by celebrities such as Oliver Reed and Koo Stark.

In 1993, White chose to leave Harveys and Platts-Martin purchased White's share of the restaurant. The restaurant closed in August 1993, and was subsequently reopened as "The Bistro", meant to be a sister restaurant to "The Canteen" which White co-owned with actor Michael Caine. It was subsequently relaunched under chef Bruce Poole as Chez Bruce in 1995. White had left because he felt restricted by the size of Harveys and felt that he needed to move to larger premises in order to win a third Michelin star.