June opening for Villiers Coffee Company and Dining Room

With a 36-seat capacity including bar seating, Villiers will serve an all-day (8am-6pm) breakfast menu including avocado on toast, fried eggs with corn bread and guacamole, and baked eggs with tomato and pepper stew, and a different, seasonal supper menu from 6pm to 11.30pm, Monday to Saturday.

Villiers will also have its own roasted coffee, takeaway sandwiches, salads, pastries and cakes, and an evening cocktail list featuring Bloody Mary (vodka) Bloody Maria (tequila), both made with the Gordons' secret spice blend, and the La Gina, a twist on the Negroni made with gin, Aperol and La Ina fino sherry.

Sophie, who designed the menus and will manage kitchen and front-of-house operations, explained: “We’ve all worked in offices and come across restrictions for serving times where if you missed the clock you couldn’t sit down and have a nice meal, so we really wanted to be an informal dining spot and go right across the board.”

The restaurant will employ a head chef, a pastry chef and sous-chefs, as well as six front-of-house staff at any given time.

The Gordons will use a combination of traditional and modern marketing techniques to promote the restaurant. “I love social media, I find it very interesting and you get to meet so many interesting people there and participate in many conversations. I also have a blog where I share my family recipes with pictures. But I think word of mouth is the best and more reliable publicity, it’s slow and steady, and I hope people will come once, come back and give good recommendations to their friends, family and colleagues. I think at the end of the day it all comes down to that,” added Sophie.

The menu was influenced by a variety of experiences including holidays, cookbooks and the internet, and will feature many gluten and wheat-free options inspired by Rose’s gluten allergy. 

“Apart from when it’s virtually impossible to recreate a gluten-free version of a dish, we’re trying to make gluten-free options available, and we’re always looking for interesting ways to use gluten-free flour where you might not expect it,” Sophie pointed out.

Sophie and Rose are part of the Gordon family, which owns and runs Gordon’s Wine Bar.