I first ate in the original Hawksmoor in Spitalfields back in the mid 2000s. Will Beckett and Huw Gott had taken over a former Turkish restaurant with a charcoal grill and named their first steakhouse after Nicholas Hawksmoor, architect of the landmark Christ Church nearby. Until then, steakhouses in London had shouty red signage and were only for out-of-towners, but Hawksmoor felt classy from the outset, having more in common with the low-lit temples to meat, the Peter Lugers and Keens, of New York. I ate in other Hawksmoors subsequently and liked the way the interiors suited the personality of each individual building rather than being plucked from a corporate lookbook. The steaks were always good.
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