Monday Bulletin: A Quo Vadis makeover and Oded Oren’s new Hackney delicatessen

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

Quo Vadis

Soho institution Quo Vadis will double the size of its downstairs dining room next year to create a ‘grander and more spacious’ public restaurant. Co-owner James Hart is overseeing work which will see the ‘vast’ reception area reduced to a more ‘bijou’ size and the restaurant taken to 40 covers, with new upholstering with red Georgian-style dining sofas and a reclaimed wooden floor. The team is ‘toying with the idea of a window curtain’, too, and the ‘imposing revolving door’ will be removed to make way for a big red one with a large brass knocker. The entrance will be, an announcement said, ‘welcoming, though no less arresting’; the stained glass windows will remain. The Quo Vadis restaurant will be closed for refurbishment between 2 January and 7 February next year before relaunching to the public. ‘For those with ‘Soho’ as their special subject, no worries should be spent on the fate of the one of the ‘Seven Noses of Soho,’ which resides on Quo Vadis’ exterior,’ the announcement also said. ‘This is no rhinoplasty.’

Oren’s deli

The chef Oded Oren will launch a Tel Aviv-style delicatessen in Broadway Market, Hackney, in January. Oren Delicatessen will sit alongside the chef’s flagship restaurant in Dalston and will sell his ‘signature silky hummus’ alongside Mediterranean and Middle Eastern produce such as preserved lemons, house-cured fish, challahs and pitas, as well as prepared dishes such as chicken kofte with turmeric, and seasonal seafood with traditional Libyan chraime sauce. ‘I’m very much looking forward to this new project which has been in the pipeline for quite some time now,’ said Oren. ‘We were fortunate to trial this concept through our lockdown takeaway offering at Oren restaurant and the love and support we’ve received from customers convinced me that this is the logical next step for Oren. Cooking family-style food is my passion and I’m looking forward to bringing a taste of Tel Aviv to Broadway market.’

Small Plates

• The award-winning pastry chef Sarah Frankland has been promoted to executive chef at Pennyhill Park in Surrey. ‘Through my years here, Exclusive Collection has invested in my development, not just as a chef but as an inspiring leader for the team,’ she said. ‘I look forward to continuing to grow and develop in my role for the future of the kitchen operation and food offering.’
   
• Sonora Taqueria has smashed its crowdfund target and owners Michelle Salazar de la Rocha and Sam Napier will open their first permanent restaurant next year. After raising a cool £74,000, the duo said: ‘We are so lucky and privileged to have extremely generous people in our lives who helped us reach this crazy goal.’
   
• Sam Harrison of Sam’s Riverside will open a second site, called Sam’s Waterside, at The Brentford Project in the summer of next year. The restaurant will be part of the enormous development in West London and will feature a terrace overlooking the river Brent. Harrison mentioned ‘a terrific river location, a buzzy atmosphere, great food and drink offerings, and a huge emphasis on service and hospitality.’
   
• The team behind Endo at the Rotunda and Sumi will open a new space in Mayfair next year, Hot Dinners first reported. Humo will launch at the old Wild Honey site near Hanover Square, with the Colombian-born Miller Prada, Endo Kazutoshi’s protégé, in charge. Dishes will include ike-jime trout marinated and smoked in juniper, and Orkney scallops with a Speyside single malt whisky sabayon.
   
• Bao Fitzrovia will close at the end of December after almost seven years. A post on Instagram said: ‘It fills us with sadness to share the news that Fitz will be closing at the end of the year. We opened in 2016 and it’s been an incredible nearly seven years, but all good things must come to an end.’ See our closures tracker to stay up to date with disheartening but necessary news.
  

Tips are down

Pub and restaurant staff could lose as much as £15m in tips due to the December rail strikes, the cashless gratuity platform Tipjar has reported. Data from the service suggested average takings on strike days in October and November were 17 per cent down. The Christmas period is usually a lucrative time for the industry, with hospitality workers benefiting from parties and seasonal indulgence. But Tipjar said the planned industrial action could be ‘devastating’ for businesses – and their staff. Ben Thomas, chief executive and co-founder of Tipjar, said: ‘The impact that extra £35/£40 has on those that are more vulnerable in our industry is huge. It could be the difference in someone being able to feed their families, or giving their kids presents at Christmas. While we align with workers speaking to improve pay and conditions, our job is to represent some of the lowest-paid workers whose income is directly related to footfall in their pubs and restaurants.’

Harriet Mansell

Exclusive: Harriet Mansell will open a bakery at her Dorset restaurant Robin Wylde in the new year. The Southwest chef will continue to run tasting menus throughout 2023, but her Lyme Regis space will also begin to host a retail bakery from January, selling breads, croissants, and pastries to the local community and supplying her sister restaurant Lilac, which will this week launch a new Saturday brunch menu. The bakery will specialise in pastries that use the wild foods for which Mansell has become known. She told CODE: ‘It’s been really hard in Lyme Regis – Robin Wylde is just too small and the reality is it’s a tough set of circumstances. We have to act fast, so we’ll be smashing out some epic bread, sweet and savoury pastries and moving forward with some exciting ideas… expect woodruff palmiers, nettle and wild flower pinwheels, and a gorse and winter citrus Danish.’

Mark Hix

Mark Hix is campaigning to save his outside deck at the Oyster & Fish House in Lyme Regis after local councillors ordered its removal. Hix set up the outdoor space during the pandemic and invested more than £20,000 in the structure, which overlooks Lyme Bay, as he looked to maximise covers during a difficult market. Permission for the decking, which includes seating, lights and stretched canopies, has since expired. The chef said he was preparing to reapply to the council, but was told it would be turned down. Hix showed CODE a letter he sent to the council, which said: ‘As we are still recovering from the impact of the pandemic and increasing costs that we are now facing, the removal of the deck would undoubtedly seriously impact upon our business and put the future of the restaurant in serious jeopardy, resulting in a significant number of job losses, and loss of revenue for the town.’

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