Welcome to our weekly digest of all that’s happening in London’s food and drink scene.
Inside this week: no seats, no booze, no forks
In Vico we trust
The team behind Soho’s much-loved Italian Bocca di Lupo have revealed plans for their second restaurant, due to launch at Cambridge Circus in late August. It's called Vico and will focus on affordable Italian street food, so much so that the look of the space is being designed to make you feel like you’re wandering around an Italian piazza. Further details are under wraps but we do know that there will be no menu, seating will be minimal and that cutlery will be frowned upon. Forking hell.
Auntie’s rooftop
West London is getting a new rooftop bar and street food spot with the arrival next week of Storeys London atop the former BBC car park at Television Centre in White City. With 24,000 square feet of space split across two levels, it will bring together three bars — including a Bloody Mary bar and a rum shack — along with a host of street food stalls. There will also be DJs of an evening, art from young London artists, day beds and brunches, while there are plans for morning yoga and evening film screenings. It will run throughout the summer every Friday evening and all day on Saturdays and Sundays from 31 July.
Levi’s Rasta-raunt
Dragon’s Den star and Reggae Reggae sauce founder Levi Roots will launch his own London restaurant later this year. Levi Roots’ Caribbean Smokehouse has been developed in partnership with one of the founders of Las Iguanas and will open in Westfield Stratford in November serving — as the name suggests — traditional Caribbean food.
Boozeless bar
Following a number of pop-ups over the last few years, Redemption Bar — with a USP of serving no alcohol whatsoever — is settling into a permanent site in Notting Hill. It will launch on Chepstow Road on 10 August and serve a menu of health-minded dishes free from sugar, wheat, dairy and meat, along with booze-free cocktails. Opinions will no doubt be divided as to whether this sounds deliciously different or just plain dull.
The Chopmobile
As of tomorrow, Haymarket’s Chop Shop will be setting up a van (or Chopmobile, as we like to call it) in nearby St James’s Square. It will serve an array of meaty dishes-to-go every weekday lunchtime for the next five weeks meaning those who work nearby will be able to get their mitts on the likes of pulled pork sausage rolls, beef shortribs, and burgers and — weather permitting — enjoy it in the beautiful surrounds of the square.
New openings
This week’s new openings have included all-day pizza restaurant Pizza Buzz near Liverpool Street, dining, drinking and golf-playing spot Vinothec Compass in Greenwich and a new branch of moules frites stop-off Belgo in Soho.
Today sees the launch of New York restaurant and nightlife spot Hotel Chantelle in Marylebone; tomorrow will mark the arrival of the first London branch of Northern chain Red’s True Barbecue in Shoreditch; and next week will see the opening of Salt & Honey near Paddington from the people behind Fulham’s Manuka Kitchen.
Next month will see Rök, described as a Scandinavian smokehouse, open in Shoreditch and Mexican restaurant and taco bar Molé, from the team behind Cocochan, launch near Selfridges. A second branch of Dirty Bones will open in Kingly Court at the end of summer, and another branch of Wahaca spin-off DF Mexico will arrive on Tottenham Court Road in September.
We round-up London’s biggest food and drink news stories and the latest new and upcoming restaurant openings in this handy digest every Thursday afternoon. See our previous editions.
Also see:
The Best Food And Drink In London — recommendations of where to enjoy the capital’s top food and drink, categorised by cuisine, food type and more.
New Restaurant Reviews — our views on London’s latest openings.
More food and drink on Londonist.
