Building The restaurant occupies numbers 26–29
Dean Street. Nos. 26–28 form a uniform group built in by the carpenter John Nolloth, of St James's, and No. 29 was built in . The sculptor
Joseph Nollekens was born in the latter house in 1737; a later resident was the composer
François-Hippolyte Barthélémon. It was due to the association with Marx that numbers 26–28 were made a Grade I
listed building on 14 January 1970. When Leoni originally opened Quo Vadis in 1926, it only occupied No. 27. He purchased the property, with the aid of a bank loan for £800. Its name was chosen after Leoni saw a billboard in
Leicester Square advertising a film of the same name. Quo Vadis is Latin for "Where are you going?". The
cinematic epic, adapted from
Henryk Sienkiewicz's 1896 novel
Quo Vadis, was the highest-grossing film in 1951. In 1996, the restaurant was bought by Marco Pierre White and
Damien Hirst, and featured paintings by the artist as well as a bar designed by him. The pair later parted company after a public falling out, following which White replaced Hirst's paintings with some of his own. In November 2007, head chef and owner Marco Pierre White sold the restaurant, along with two others, to restaurant group
Conduit Street. Quo Vadis was then sold on again to Sam and Eddie Hart, who immediately closed it down. Both White and the Hart brothers endured criticism as Christmas bookings were cancelled. The Hart brothers re-opened the restaurant in 2008 with head Chef Jean Philippe Patruno (previously at Fino) following extensive restoration work and, in 2009, it won
Tatler magazine's Restaurant of the Year award. In July 2008, celebrity chef
Gordon Ramsay named Quo Vadis as his favourite restaurant, describing the Hart brothers as "restaurateurs in the fullest sense of the word". The
Evening Standard characterised this praise as a "thinly veiled attack" on Marco Pierre White, with whom Ramsay has an antipathetic relationship. On the front-right of the restaurant is the curious sight of a human nose. While rumours of connections to ancient Roman legends of traitors having their noses cut off and fed to animals have sprung up, it is one of several
London Noses. In January 2012
Jeremy Lee, formerly of London's Blueprint Café, joined Sam and Eddie Hart as chef and partner at Quo Vadis. Upon Lee's arrival the restaurant underwent some cosmetic changes and began a collaboration with artist John Broadley, starting with the distinctive illustrated menus. In September 2012 the QV Bakery was launched and a month later, in October 2012, Quo Vadis began offering breakfast. == Critical reception ==