Exclusive: Big Mamma will open Jacuzzi, its latest party restaurant, on 20 January

Big Mamma, the French group behind the Italian-themed party restaurants Gloria, Circolo Popolare, and Ave Mario, will open its latest venue, Jacuzzi, on 20 January, CODE can reveal.

Jacuzzi, a glittering cove of mirrored walls and parmigiano foam, appears to be the company’s most ambitious London project yet, set over four storeys and 4,000 sq ft on Kensington High Street. 

It will ‘be more than just a trattoria… a divine Italian mansion where the naughtiest fantasies come to life’, said Big Mamma. There will be a neon-lit ‘disco toilet’ – a Sopranos-themed, rainbow-coloured Instagram hit at Ave Mario – and new dishes only available at Jacuzzi, such as cheese-stuffed focaccia, and an ‘XXL profiterole’ filled with pistacchio di bronte gelato.

CODE was told the wine list will be the brand’s ‘most sublime yet’, too, ‘dedicated to all things that froth and bubble.’ Jacuzzi will be a ‘whirlpool of Italian sparkling wines and Franciacorta’, said the team. 

In charge of the food will be incoming head chef Manuel Prota, who started with the group as chef de partie at Circolo before becoming sous chef at Ave Mario. 

‘The menu for Jacuzzi, my first opening as head chef, is completely different from our other trattorias,’ Prota told CODE.

‘We are working with next-level Italian prodotti, such as the culatello from Onesto Ghiradi, a first for Big Mamma, served with the iconic Emilian gnocco fritto, as well as a lot of seafood and shellfish. 

‘The dishes I am most excited about? Our Cotoletta XXL and dedicated focaccia oven for our first-ever authentic Focaccia al Formaggio.’

There will still be Big Mamma classics – pasta-filled cheese wheels and truffle-topped pizzas among them – but Jacuzzi will undoubtedly take the brand’s party food further.

The decor will be equally lavish and eccentric. Jacuzzi will sit inside a former bank, long empty, and the restaurant across the ground and first floors will seat 170. 

There will be an enormous lemon tree in the centre of the building, and a retractable glass ceiling above a ‘boudoir’ on the top floor. In the basement? That’ll be the ‘disco toilet’, then.

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