Former Paternoster Chop House head chef Peter Weeden to launch Newman Street Tavern
Weeden, a co-owner of the new business, will head up the kitchen at the 140-cover restaurant when it opens at the end of the month. The eatery will showcase seasonal, specialist and wild produce in a menu, some of which will change daily.
Supplier relationships
"We have a beautiful building which we have restored to some of its former glory," Weeden told BigHospitality. The restaurant will be spread over two floors - a 90-cover ground floor tavern and raw bar and a 50-cover dining room upstairs. However the menu across the whole of the former pub will be the same.
"Rather than try to do something that is stuck in the past, we have tried to put the building back and then fill it with things that are ranging from some vintage to some a bit more contemporary.
"The style of the food is about simplicity, honesty and integrity of the ingredients and things which are delicious. The ingredients we have got are so amazing - I spent a lot of time speaking to people at Paternoster Chop House making sure we had the best-quality things in town and those supplier relationships continue here."
The downstairs raw bar will showcase freshly-caught produce and the sustainable seafood Weeden is known for including squat lobsters, razor clams and sea urchins.
Dishes on the main menu are expected to include hot water crust pork pie, devilled rabbit offal and grilled ox liver with onions, while the wine list will include both new and vintage bottles available by the glass or pot.
More interesting
The project is the brainchild of the chef and first-time restaurateur who has been working on it for six months - it is also co-owned by Nigel Sutcliffe, former managing director of The Crazy Bear Group, Jerome Armit and James McLean.
Together Sutcliffe, Armit and McLean also came together in 2010 for the opening of West Brompton neighbourhood restaurant The Henry Root.
Weeden, who has also worked at Quaglino’s and Coq D’Argent, helped open the Paternoster Chop House for D&D London and stayed at the City of London venue for seven years before working in the kitchen of The Boundary in Shoreditch until he met the trio.
"We decided to open something together which is a bit more interesting than working for somebody else," he said.
"We don't have a set idea of exactly what the restaurant has to be except from the principles, integrity and simplicity of the food and the quality of the service and the surroundings. The biggest difference (from operating as part of a group) is there is no set formula," he concluded.
The restaurant will be open from Monday-Saturday for lunch and dinner and on Sunday for brunch and lunch - the team will only be taking reservations for the upstairs dining room.
