Will Ricker to open Casa Negra restaurant in Shoreditch

20-May-2013 - Last updated on 27-Apr-2021 at 12:51 GMT

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Casa Negra in Shoreditch will join La Bodega Negra as part of Will Ricker's restaurant portfolio

Casa Negra, a sister restaurant to Will Ricker's La Bodega Negra, is to open in the former Great Eastern Dining Room site in Shoreditch next month.

The Great Eastern Street venue, which has been owned by the Australian businessman since 1998, had been operating as pan-Asian eatery The Great Eastern Dining Room until it was closed earlier this year. However the east London property has now been transformed and will be re-opened with a Mexican street food offer next month.

Casa Negra will open on 6 June and will act as a sister restaurant to La Bodega Negra; Ricker's other Mexican-inspired venue. The main restaurant, with a kitchen team led by New York chef Brad McDonald, will be complemented with a basement club and event space - the Casa Playroom.

Cantina

The 82-cover main restaurant will be based on a Mexican cantina and will feature a number of signature dishes such as Carnitas El Lechón - various cuts of sucking pig served to the table alongside salsas and garnishes.

McDonald, formerly of Brooklyn restaurants Gran Electrica and Governor, has created a range of sharing dishes which will also feature on the menu including seafood tostadas, ox tongue tacos, chocolate and Ancho Chile-rubbed lamb shoulder and Cochinita pibil (pork shoulder marinated in orange and annatto flower and steamed in banana leaf).

The bar, which will be open until 2am, will have space for around 30 drinkers and will feature a drinks menu offering tequila and mezcal-based cocktails and a Margarita made with the restaurant's own orange liqueur sweetened with organic agave nectar.

London

Casa Negra will join Ricker's portfolio of London restaurants which now includes E&O, XO, Cicada, Eight Over Eight and La Bodega Negra in Soho which opened early last year.

While the interior of the new restaurant will take inspiration from Mexican design, it will also feature 'more traditional British townhouse elements'.

Speaking to BigHospitality after the launch of La Bodega Negra last year, Ricker said he would 'never' consider opening a venue outside of London and did not understand why anyone would want to launch a restaurant outside of the capital.