Martin Morales to open second Ceviche restaurant in London

By Emma Eversham

- Last updated on GMT

Related tags Peruvian cuisine

Martin Morales will open his second
Martin Morales will open his second
Ex-DJ turned restaurateur Martin Morales has announced plans to open a second restaurant in London following the success of Ceviche in Soho's Frith Street. 

Ceviche Shoreditch will open in spring 2013 with a Ceviche Bar and Pisco Bar as well as a dedicated barbecue for anticucho skewers. It will also offer an onsite takeaway service and host live music and DJs. 

Morales, who opened his first restaurant in London less than a year ago, told BigHospitality although the new venue, whose location is yet to be finalised, would have the same name and inspiration as Ceviche Soho, it would be 'very different'. 

"When we set out with Ceviche we wanted to create a group of individual restaurants that are really unique in their own right. This will be different from what we have in Soho, but it will have much of the same in that it will still be about Peruvian cuisine and music."

Well-known area​ 

Morales said he had tested the water in Shoreditch before attempting to find a site for a restaurant, through supper clubs at Shoreditch House and a pop-up at Global Feast. 

"We feel that we know the area and have a customer base there. I used to live in Dalston and DJ'd at bars in the area and ran pub nights at Cargo, so personally I know the area well. I think it will work well in east London." 

As with Ceviche Soho, Morales' second venture is self-funded with financial support from private investors, who are mostly friends and family. 

"I've had amazing support from friends and family and they have been involved in this from the start." 

Ceviche success

Morales, who went ahead with Ceviche after a Twitter campaign showed strong support for the idea, said he had not expected success with his first restaurant so soon. 

"It has gone better than we thought. People have really got excited about what we have been doing much more quickly than we had imagined. Lodnon diners didn't know much about Peruvian cuisine before we opened, but it has really caught their attention."

 Record and book

The news comes as the restaurant publishes its first cookbook and announces plans to release a number of 7-inch singles through its Tiger’s Milk Records label. 

Ceviche: The Peruvian Cookbook, published by W&N/Orion and created by Morales and Ceviche's head chef Gregor Funcke, will feature over 100 recipes and photographs celebrating the best of Peruvian food, from the restaurant’s signature dishes such as Don Ceviche and Lomo Saltado to updated Peruvian classics like Peruvian Corn Cake and cocktails such as the Soho Pisco. 

The restaurateur's new singles merge his musical past and his interest in Peruvian culture. 

Morales said: “Many of the songs we play at Ceviche are from the 60s and 70s and you can only get them on vinyl 7-inches that cost around £100 each. From urban latin funk from Lima, to Amazonian psychedelic chicha​, many of these songs have laid undiscovered for over 30 years and customers have been asking us how they can get hold of these.

"So we are making these available in their original 7-inch format and in a beautiful package that pays respect to their heritage. We are passionate about bringing Peruvian food and culture to the UK and this fits into what we are doing”. 

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