The Aussies taking NYC’s coolest bar to London’s most glam hotel

The cultural and commercial ties between New York and London are so strong they brought about the portmanteau NyLon. Now, Australian husband-and-wife hospitality team Linden Pride and Natalie Hudson are hoping that their success in the Big Apple can be replicated across the pond at London’s Claridge’s hotel.

Caffe Dante in Greenwich Village opened in 1915 as a modest meeting place that eventually became a hangout for stars including Al Pacino and Bob Dylan. Pride and Hudson bought the neighbourhood joint in 2015, eventually opening outposts in West Village and Beverly Hills, and taking the top spot on The World’s Best Bars list in 2019.

The Dante recipe was seemingly simple: care, cocktails and community, and now it hopes the same mix will remedy something of a revolving door at Claridge’s dining room.

Since Gordon Ramsay left in 2013, iterations have included chefs Simon Rogan, Daniel Humm and Will Guidara, and an in-house restaurant.

In July 2025, Dante Mayfair began as a pop-up residency but this year the restaurant became permanent. “We are so proud to call Claridge’s, and London, our new home,” says Pride. “At Dante Mayfair, we have amped up the volume on our New York roots across design, menu and music, aiming to bring an impish sense of fun to Davies Street. That sense of a neighbourhood that Dante created for decades in New York.”

Hudson worked with Bryan O’Sullivan Studio to warm up what can be an imposing, high-ceilinged space with a palette of greens and blues, botanical murals by Beth Rodway, and images of the Amalfi Coast by photographer David Yarrow. Dante Mayfair is open seven days a week from breakfast to dinner and aims to be “the living room of Mayfair”, bringing more accessibility and value to the hotel dining concept.

As you would expect from a former World’s Best Bar, cocktails are to the fore with a focus on aperitivo hour “when the sun begins to set, the sky is streaked with pink and gold, and friends gather over a drink”. As in the New York outpost, martinis feature heavily with The Dirty 5:1 bringing the funk with olive brine and blue cheese olives, and a chilled side pour in a carafe; a Dirty Cornichon Martini uses on-trend pickle brine and a Caviar Martini comes topped with fish roe. A daily happy hour from 3pm to 5pm results in silver trays of martinis flying around the crowded room at £10 ($20) a pop.

The food is American classics with starters like a New York kale caesar and shrimp cocktail. Mains feature a grill section with lobster, minute steak, on-the-bone halibut and rib-eye simply cooked with extra virgin olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. There are also casual, and more affordable, dining options like Dante’s smash burger, veal Milanese and cacio e pepe topped with black truffle. Servers may be dressed formally in crisp black-and-whites, but the banter is warm and the service attentive with an empty martini glass summoning a member of staff faster than if you rubbed Aladdin’s lamp.

Music is taken seriously at Dante Mayfair. Linden Pride’s grandfather was a DJ and promoter (Bob Rogers, also namesake of short-lived Neil Perry bar Bobbie’s in Double Bay, a partnership with Pride) who was one of the first to promote The Beatles and The Rolling Stones in Australia. There is a Blues soundtrack to Dante Mayfair by day and come evening, live piano players and singers.

See dantemayfair.com