Texture and 28°- 50°'s Agnar Sverrisson to ‘take company to another level’

The Icelandic chef, who co-founded the company in 2007, said he was excited about the prospect of steering the business forward singlehandedly and had plans to improve and expand wine workshop and kitchen brand 28°-50°.

Plans include opening a fourth 28°-50° in London next year with new operations director Sid Clark, recruited from Gordon Ramsay’s Maze last month, helping with the search. 

“It was always going to be one Texture, but we want to take 28°-50° further and will definitely do that next year,” said Sverrisson.

“We will start looking for a new site in October to open next year. I want to open more, but it will be one at time, we’ll do it modestly.”

Sverrisson said although Rousset had influenced the company’s wine focus, his departure would not ‘make any difference’ to the quality of the offering.

“I still have very good wine people in the business and we are not going to change the focus of 28°-50°, not dramatically anyway,” he said.

“It’s a good challenge and I have good people with me like Sid. I’m very excited about it and want to take the company to another level.

“We can improve and we will improve. We are going to let everything settle first, but we’re very positive about the future and no reason why we can’t achieve what we want.”

Rousset announced he was leaving Texture and 28°-50° Restaurant Group​ in May after eight years as director. The sommelier has retained a small share in the business, but Sverrisson said he was likely to give up his shares in January.