Uncle Sam is coming to town!

CHOW DOWN

You might have thought that Meat Liquor, Honest Burgers, Lucky Chip and the rest had exhausted the potential of the humble burger. But think again, because a further host of American pretenders are heading this way. At the front of the pack is Shake Shack, which started as a hot dog cart and allegedly makes the best burgers in the world (you just try to get a table at its Madison Square Park restaurant on a weekday lunchtime). It’s set to open this summer in Covent Garden’s Market Building near the recent NYC import Balthazar, with a second branch at an undecided location already being whispered about. Close behind, and also in Covent Garden this summer, is the Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse-backed Five Guys. Its USP is the addition of as many toppings on your patty as you like, for free — and there are plans for at least four more branches already in place.

For seafood fans, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co, inspired by the chain in Forrest Gump, which has 32 branches worldwide including one on Times Square, will be opening its first UK outpost in the Trocadero this year; while Derek Sanders’ New York taqueria La Esquina (the original guerrilla restaurant hidden inside a traditional Big Apple diner) is rumoured to be opening its doors in Notting Hill, once it has found suitable premises (ie, just the right side of scummy).

Already open are STK, a branch of the US ‘female-friendly’ steakhouse, in the ME hotel in the Aldwych; and Red House, a new Chelsea bistro from John DeLucie, the chef behind ultra-hip New York restaurants The Waverly Inn, Crown and The Lion. We’ve also heard that seven-Michelin-starred Thomas Keller is scouting for a location for a London branch of his Bouchon French bistro chain.

SPLASH CASH

The American sartorial invasion started with Abercrombie & Fitch and American Apparel. Then came Opening Ceremony and Rag & Bone, but there was still one brand we were willing to cross the Atlantic for — J.Crew. Michelle and Malia Obama wore it to the presidential inauguration this year, and there are few people in fashion we idolise quite as much as its creative director Jenna Lyons. Now it appears the love is mutual because J.Crew is coming to the capital, starting with a King’s Cross pop-up on 24 May, featuring a preview of the A/W 2013 collection and selling its classic Italian cashmere pieces. A flagship store is set to open on Regent Street in November, along with a rumoured menswear store. Next up is US housewives’ favourite Williams-Sonoma, rumoured to be bringing its trendy homeware to Tottenham Court Road later this year.

Meanwhile, Victoria Beckham’s favourite perfumer Royal Apothic opened a pop-up apothecary on the King’s Road this week, selling its new collection inspired by English manor houses and classic florals, and there are hopes for a permanent base soon.

WORK OUT

Eating with the enthusiasm of an American means piling on the calories. Thankfully, working out in London now comes with a dose of US-style glamour, starting with SoulCycle (loved by Lady Gaga) and Hot Pilates (it’s good enough for us if Miranda Kerr and Claire Danes are fans). SoulCycle is a bit like spinning in that you sit on fixed bikes, but in a dimly lit room with motivational bons mots yelled out by a Lululemon-clad instructor (‘You make your own destiny!’). Try it at H2 Ride Spinning Studio in Soho (h2bikerun.co.uk). Hot Pilates is Pilates in a sauna, Bikram yoga-style. Work up a sweat at Covent Garden’s Yotopia (yotopia.co.uk). Equinox gym (equinox.com) opened at the end of last year in Kensington and, with its digital skylight and anti-gravity machinery, is about as far from your local rec centre as you can get: ‘This isn’t just a fitness club, it’s a temple of wellbeing,’ apparently.

HANG OUT

Chateau Marmont is the ultimate playground for LA’s superstars, from Angelina Jolie to Johnny Depp, not to mention the site of LiLo’s breakdowns (parts one, two and three). It’s owned by André Balazs, whose portfolio also includes sleek New York hotels The Mercer and Evening Standard, and who is now turning a former fire station on Chiltern Street in Marylebone into another of his boutique boltholes. Details are thin on the ground so far, but it should be opening late this year, with just 26 suites, a members’ club and a restaurant. Or, if you like your hotels to come with a healthy smattering of hipsters, the effortlessly cool Ace Hotel, with turntables and Gibson guitars in the rooms of its US outposts (New York, Palm Springs, Los Angeles, Seattle and Portland), arrives in Shoreditch in the autumn. Here’s hoping that April Bloomfield, the carnivorous British chef in the New York Ace, is given her first London restaurant, too. The Mondrian hotels, known for their extravagant bars, pools and rooftop terraces (currently in New York, LA and Miami), will also be opening a branch here next year, with a 360-room hotel in the former Sea Containers House on the eastern end of the South Bank. It will have a nautical influence in its design, two riverside restaurants and a breakfast bar.