Inside this week: beer, beef and burgers
Au revoir Le Chabanai
There was a fair bit of excitement surrounding Le Chabanais when it launched in Mayfair just a couple of months ago. Run in partnership with the team behind acclaimed Paris restaurant Le Chateaubriand, it promised to be a London sister site to one of France’s best eateries. But the critics weren’t won over, and the negative reviews soon flooded in — now the chef and his team from Le Chateaubriand have decided to part ways completely. The restaurant is currently shut due to a “gas leak”. When it reopens, there will, we suspect, be changes afoot.
Old Vic's new bar
Waterloo’s Old Vic theatre is having a bit of a refurb — and that includes the adjoining Pit Bar. It will be replaced with Penny, an all-day café and bar from the team behind Milk in Balham and Fields in Clapham. It will serve coffee from Workshop and fresh juices along with craft beers and natural wines. The food offering will include morning pastries from The Little Pedlar in Bermondsey followed by wholesome produce-driven plates such as avocado and Sussex ricotta on Brixton sourdough, and beechwood-smoked anchovies on toast with chilli salt. Penny will launch in September.
Beef and beer
A beef and beer focused restaurant is coming to Kentish Town, rather appropriately named Beef & Brew. It replaces Pane Vino on kentish Town Road — clearly bread and wine isn’t as good a pairing — and will focus on cheaper cuts of meat, such as onglet, flat iron and rump rather than ribs, fillets or sirloins. Dishes will include salt beef with leeks and mustard cream and short-rib buns, while fried chicken will also feature. A large selection of ‘craft’ beers will be bolstered by beer and food pairing menus and beer flights. The restaurant it being opened by chef Jessica Simmons, who previously worked at Angela Hartnett’s Michelin-starred Murano and also helped launch the kitchen at London Fields Brewery.
Old tails
Fancy trying a cocktail from the 1800s? When restaurant group D&D London relaunches its drinking and dining options within The Royal Exchange near Bank next month, it will open a bar allowing you to do just that. The Threadneedle Bar will serve a menu of drinks based on Jerry Thomas’s 1862 book The Bartender’s Guide, the first collection of cocktail recipes ever published. The bar will be open weekdays only and will also serve a short menu of bar snacks.
Meaty baps
Crouch End burger joint Burgers@N8 will launch next Thursday, which appropriately enough is National Burger Day. As well as bringing meaty baps to the area, the restaurant – which is built out of shipping containers – will donate at least 10% of its profits to local charities, such as Accumul8, which helps homeless and vulnerable people develop new skills.
New openings
The past week’s openings include pizza and craft beer restaurant 400 Rabbits in Crystal Palace and Lobster Bar near Hackney Central, which specialises in exactly what the name suggests. Next week will mark the launch of beer-themed restaurant Wahleeah in Fulham, a beer-themed restaurant from chef Dave Aherne. It will feature a list of more than 30 beers, special beer and food matchings, and many of the dishes will also feature beer. Vico – the new, no-menu Italian restaurant on Cambridge Circus – is also looking to start cut-price previews ahead of its formal opening next month.
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.
