Hibiscus's Claude Bosi to open Wimbledon pub
The Fox and Grapes - in Wimbledon, south London - will retain its name, with the French-born duo set to offer traditional English food and a large range of draught beers and wines.
Main course plates will include Coq au Vin, Chicken Kiev, Sausage and Mash, Fish Pie and sharing platters of roasted meats. A bar menu will offer pork scratchings, sausage rolls and pork pies.
“It won’t be French cooking,” said Bosi. “Just seasonal local produce cooked well. There are very few privately owned operations in Wimbledon; it’s crying out for something good. The English pub is the closest thing there is to a neighbourhood bistro in France. I want to create a convivial atmosphere and offer good home cooking.”
The brothers Bosi are not new to the pub trade having operated the Bib Gourmand rated Bell Inn, Ludlow, Shropshire, which closed February this year.
The Fox and Grapes
Patrick Leano, currently a sous chef at Hibiscus and formerly at The Capital, London - working under Eric Chavot - will be head chef, overseeing a brigade of six.
Cedric will be general manager, with Claude overseeing the menus but spending the majority of his time at his Mayfair restaurant, which is ranked fourth in our list of the top 100 places to eat in the UK and placed 49th in our S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.
A refit is currently underway and the pub - an Enterprise Inns leasehold with three letting bedrooms overlooking Wimbledon Common - is slated to open early February next year.
