CODE Bulletin Catch Up

Catch up on the latest industry news stories of the week from the CODE Bulletin

Antinori

This year will mark the arrival of Cantinetta Antinori to London. It will be the first UK venture from Italy’s famous Antinori family – Tuscan winemakers for more than six centuries and Florentine restaurateurs. Also involved are the Monaco-based Giraudi family, and the Berkmanns, best known for supplying fine wines to restaurants in Britain. Cantinetta is scheduled to launch in August and will “offer relaxed, all day traditional Tuscan dining”, an announcement said, with live music in “an informal yet refined environment”. We suspect the menu will be plump with bread, butter and anchovies; fresh beans with garlic and shrimp; and Florentine T-bones. In Firenze, the restaurant is elegant but effortless, with an extensive wine list that doesn’t deviate much, classically Italian as that is. To be fair, Chianti is a wine that could do with a nudge toward the fashionable tables of London. Allegra Antinori would hope so. She said: “We opened the first Cantinetta Antinori in Florence back in 1957, moved by the desire of having people experiencing a taste of typical Tuscan hospitality, with perfect pairing between our wines and the traditional cuisine. Still moved by the same intent, we are excited to begin our new story in London.”

Westminster £1m

Westminster Council has promised to “inject millions of pounds into reviving the West End”, which will include funds to help hospitality businesses recruit new staff. The council has set aside £1m for a recruitment drive for the sector, connecting restaurants, pubs and bars with “local jobseekers, colleges, and training centres.” Rachael Robathan, the leader of Westminster City Council, said: “We generate more than £60bn a year and support one in eight jobs in the capital. Westminster and the West End were hard hit by lockdown. As the local authority area with more restaurants, bars and cafes than any other in the country, we feel we have a special obligation to support the hospitality industry, which is why we have today announced our new £1m recruitment scheme. The venue owners work night and day to support jobs; the council can play its part by providing trained staff for those jobs.” It’s big talk – and a welcome use of funds. CODE thinks reclosing key roads in Soho to traffic – as it did in the summer – might also be a good way to go. 

Goddard & Gibbs 

A restaurant “inspired by the country’s fishing villages and seaside towns” will open alongside East London’s newest hotel, One Hundred Shoreditch, on March 3. Goddard & Gibbs will specialise in British seafood, typically “focused on ethical sourcing and local suppliers from around the UK”. In the 150-cover restaurant and from a takeaway hatch, head chef Tom Moore will deliver an intriguing menu that appears to step beyond Carlingford oysters and Orkney scallops (though they are on the menu). A Dorset shellfish lasagna starter sounds promising, as does the “crispy fried fillet of fish burger”,  although we can’t help but think McDonald’s will have a word about the name. Marinated Cornish sardines, day boat calamari and clam pizzas – sharing plates – sound unwaveringly suited to the locale, and will be served in the 40-seat wine bar, separated by a glass partition wall. The restaurant, which includes an enormous, bright yellow statement sculpture piece, was designed by the Lore Group’s Jacu Strauss. 

Small plates

JKS’ Persian restaurant Berenjak is expanding. The second site will open in Borough Market, co-founder Karam Sethi confirmed last night. The group has taken on the former home of Flor on Bedale Street. 

We spotted on Twitter the news that someone has finally gambled on the old Polpo Notting Hill site, four years after it went on the market. 

Long-time PR Paul Simpson, AKA @paulfromthenorth, has launched his own agency. It’s called Super Duper. Clients include Crispin, Peckham Cellars, Legare, Townsend, and the Garden Museum Cafe. 

The London-based bar and restaurant operator MJMK is planning to open a flagship for its Casa do Frango concept in Mayfair after securing the former Ice Bar site in Heddon Street, Propel reported today. 

MasterChef: The Professionals 

MasterChef: The Professionals is returning for its 15th series and judges Monica Galetti, Marcus Wareing and Gregg Wallace are ready to taste food on camera once more in the hope of finding the next big thing. Applications are open until March 25. “The competition welcomes applications from chefs with a range of culinary backgrounds and experiences and celebrates the diversity of people and food culture found all over the UK,” said the team. 

Atul Kochhar in Buckinghamshire

The Indian chef Atul Kochhar is opening another restaurant in Buckinghamshire. Riwaz will launch on February 16 at a former Zizzi site in Beaconsfield. Kochhar said the restaurant will serve “traditional cuisines of India with a menu inspired by history and cultural stories and practices”. It joins Hawkyns at The Crown in Amersham, Sindhu at The Compleat Angler, and Vaasu, both in Marlow.

Richard Corrigan

Apparently Richard Corrigan is looking for suitable premises for a restaurant in Dublin. The Mail’s diary pages reported he’s “moving back to the Emerald Isle”, suggesting some sort of permanent London departure of a situation. Untrue, we understand. But another venture over there may yet be on the cards. He’s ever-busy after all. Late last year, the chef revealed a new project in Camden, telling the Irish Independent he’d been “up to my eyes with designers, builders, for my new place in Hawley Wharf in Camden Basin… That whole area of Camden was a bit of a tourist hole. Now it has become another London hub, like Shoreditch was in the 1990s.” 

David Thompson

On more solid ground is word the restaurateur David Thompson is heading back to the UK. Big Hospitality reported last week the chef is bringing his street food group Long Chim – which now has branches in Sydney, Perth and Dubai – to London. It was here, in 2001, Thompson opened Nahm at The Halkin Hotel. It became the first Thai restaurant to earn a Michelin star before closing 12 years ago. These days the focus is more casual. “Most Thais eat in the markets and on the streets, and with good reason, as it is easy and casual with some of the best eating to be had,” he said of Long Chim previously. “I want to capture the character, the pace and the flavour of the city with its beguiling tastes, colour and excitement.”

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