Camino to open fifth site, in first opening since expansion lull
The opening marks a new step in the group’s expansion plans, which were first confirmed in 2013 after the group received £3m in funding from the British Growth Fund (2013).
Camino had stated plans to grow to 10 sites by 2016-17, but appeared to stall after opening in Bankside in March 2015.
The new 115 Curtain Road site will feature a 75-cover tapas bar, and an 80-cover restaurant on the ground floor of new dining and shopping development Principal Place. There will also be a heated 40-cover outdoor terrace open all year round.
Group executive chef Nacho del Campo will create a selection of new dishes for the site, to be served alongside the group’s existing tapas-inspired plates.
The new site’s décor will come from the B3 Designers studio, which also worked on London restaurants Lyle’s, Roka, and Gymkhana.
The design will take inspiration from the Castile y Leon region of Northern Spain, including touches such as a carved wooden bar, leather seating, tiled floors, and vintage posters.
Camino owner Richard Bigg first opened the Cantaloupe bar in Shoreditch in 1995 (often credited as ‘the first bar in Shoreditch’), and since went on to found Camino in 2007, having fallen in love with Spain during a road trip there in 1984.
The menu now focuses on classics such as tomato bread, croquetas de jamón, manchego cheese with quince, gambas ajillo (garlic prawns), and octopus with paprika.
Standout main dishes are the Segovian-style suckling pig and Asturian rib eye steak, while the dessert options include churros with chocolate sauce, and Galician tart with Pedro Ximénez dulce de leche.
“When we opened Cantaloupe on Charlotte Road, Shoreditch was a very different neighbourhood, completely unknown to the rest of London, and all my friends thought I was mad,” Bigg says. “But I had a good feeling in my bones about it and it turned out to be the right thing at the right time.”
“That’s why it’s a fantastically exciting prospect to be opening Camino in the much-evolved but as exciting as ever Shoreditch, and be going back to our roots.”
Camino’s other sites are in London’s Bankside, Blackfriars, King’s Cross and Monument. The group also runs the sherry-focused Bar Pepito in King’s Cross, just across the courtyard from the Camino restaurant.
