Why Petros Stathis, the “King of Luxury” is making a bet on London
Panic among London’s Soho House crowd – the capital is about to get not one but two new exclusive luxury restaurants.
No, stay with me, these are SO unashamedly high-end that the bulk of the Sohos will be left feeling, well, distinctly provincial.
They are called Nammos and CÉ LA VI – and the man behind their arrival in the UK is Greek and latterly Emirati businessman, aesthete and cultural influencer Petros Stathis.
You may not have heard of him, and that is as he likes it.
Petros prefers being the quiet power in the land, deliberately eschewing the me-me-me vanity of our current clutch of celebrity restauranteurs and business-folk.
And power – which has seen him dubbed the “King of Luxury” may be an understatement.
Petros, the sharp-suited purveyor of all things stylish was born in Athens, and as a younger man was a distinctly political animal helping the then Government plan the 1996 centennial Athens Olympics bid.
He says: “I was an advisor to the Minister of Culture and Sport in the run-up to the 1996 centennial Athens Olympics bid. It was an exciting time to be involved in the most important topic in Greece at that moment.”
The bid failed (though it did pave the way for the Greeks’ ultimately successful push for the 2004 games) but working on real-world infrastructure projects allowed his inner business magnate to flourish.
He quit politics to focus on growing a construction empire which was so successful he floated it just a few years later.
Success led to success and Petros is now the sole owner of a spectacular private equity and investment company called Monterock International, which employs 2,500 people across 18 countries. His business portfolio consists largely of what can be broadly termed “hospitality” – hotels, restaurants, shopping experiences – all of which drip high-end luxury.
But what surprises here are the odd exceptions, the outliers, which feel like nothing less than passion projects.
Quiet though he may be, the Greek is a man who seems to have an ‘apposite bon mot’ for every significant turn he has taken in life – in this case he says: “You don’t do business for your pockets. You do business for your soul. There are few mantras that have stuck with me more.”
And in that spirit, he bought AEK Athens FC (currently lying third in the Greek superleague) and, as any fan will tell you, football club ownership is not for the meek.
He has bought newspapers, airlines, shipping companies, and even the long-term lease of Sveti Stefan, an island off the coast of Montenegro once frequented by Hollywood Golden Age movie stars Richard Burton and Gina Lollobrigida which he seems to have partly bought because of family connections. The epitome of a passion project, surely.
He says: “This was around 2006. I was travelling a lot across the Balkans, and it was at that time that I became enchanted by the wider region’s food, drink and culture of hospitality and spotted an untapped opportunity in its hospitality sector.
“Montenegro was hugely underdeveloped as a holiday destination, but there was potential to turn it into a luxury travel hotspot. So, I got to work, opening high-end restaurants and hotels along the Montenegrin coast.”
It was, of course, another raging success.
Petros, it seemed, had discovered an unerring knack for seeing an opportunity and piling-in where fainter-hearts would wait for others to take the first steps and blaze a trail.
This ability often seemed passion-led, but in fact the initial hunch was always followed by extensive, painstaking research to make sure the hunch was on the money.
And that money – by the way – is staggering. Conservative estimates suggest Monterock is currently worth in the ten-digit range, and includes brands such as Nobu, Nusr-Et, and ultra-high-end hotels One&Only and AMAN – including the building that houses AMAN Venice, where George and Amal Clooney wed.
But perhaps the largest leap forward to become a quiet pathfinder in the global hospitality industry has been Nammos World. This burgeoning chain of Mediterranean restaurants-cum-beach bars was in fact the first time Petros had ever established and operated a restaurant himself. In all other cases he owned and controlled the real estate where the hotel or establishment was housed. Nammos also represents something else: the first time Petros has built up his own, international luxury brand, rather than working with ones that are already known.
The project was built on the profile of the legendary Greek Nammos – an exclusive beach club in Mykonos, operating since in the 1960s, famed for its uniquely laid-back “vibe” and glorious Mediterranean food. Known to both locals and for decades to the European jet-set, Petros took the concept and built a new version of it in Dubai.
It allowed Petros to combine his love of his birth country with that of his newly adopted home in the UAE.
He says: “I noticed that Dubai didn’t have a luxury lifestyle Mediterranean F&B (food and beverage) experience, yet it was and remains one of the most profitable restaurant locations in the world. So, I decided that we should be the ones to bring the Med to Dubai.”
Nammos Dubai opened in 2019, months before the absolute worst possible year on earth to own, let alone open, a new restaurant as the Covid epidemic gripped the planet.
Lesser mortals’ establishments might have floundered – but this one flew. As Petros says: “Nammos Dubai cemented itself in the food scene and is now the highest-earning restaurant in the world – with earnings of over $70 million last year.”
Not a bad hunch then for a first-time restaurateur.
It has been described as “quintessentially Dubai: an intermingling of generations, all hoping to experience something they haven’t before — and prepared to spend anything to get it.” Or, as Petros says: “Where the billionaires go, the millionaires follow and then all the rest.”
Nammos World is not standing still. Since the Dubai launch, and now as part of ADMO Lifestyle Holding, a joint venture between Monterock International and the UAE’s Alpha Dhabi Holding, Petros, recently appointed chairman, has been busy. With Nammos Limassol already open for business, and as well as the planned new London restaurant, Nammos Cannes on the Cote d’Azur is set for a spectacular re-opening this summer. In the Maldives Monterock is building a new ultra-luxury Nammos Resort (complete with exclusive private residences for sale). A new Nammos Resort is planned for AMAALA on the Saudi Red Sea coast, and other outlets are planned for the Americas.
Likewise for Ce La Vi. Following its acquisition Petros is driving the expansion of the super-fashionable roof top bar brand that started as the sky bar on top of Singapore’s iconic Marina Bay Sands. Regional outposts followed in Tokyo and Taipai but now also thanks to Petros in Dubai. As with Nammos, Petros is now the operator not only the realtor for these two burgeoning global brands.
And back to London where Petros’ will open CÉ LA VI in the award-winning Renzo Piano Workshop-designed Paddington Square this summer, before the doors open on Nammos in the autumn in the UK capital’s up market area of Mayfair.
Why, you might ask, is Petros giving this rare fillip to London at a time when others ask if London’s time has gone?
He says: “I know some people think London is a bit down right now, and it certainly is not an easy city in which to open a new hospitality business, but in reality this is a city which has never been out of fashion and I believe it never will be.”
It seems Petros has one of his hunches. And that’s good news for those of us who think, like Noël Coward, that “Nothing ever can quite replace the grace of London Town”. Amen to that.
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