Salon heads further south for upcoming opening

Levan will launch in a converted warehouse block in Peckham this October, serving an all-day European-inspired menu.

Breakfast options will comprise pastries; tartines made with bread baked in-house, house-cured salmon, goat’s curd and pickled elderberries; and a croque monsieur.

The lunch menu will include the likes of potato, chanterelle and Vacherin cheese pie; fig salad with candied walnuts and goat’s cheese; and apple tart tatin with Ivy House cream.

The evening menu will offer a selection of small plates such as comte fries with saffrom aioli; Boudin noir, egg yolk and endive, which can be eaten either in the dining room or at the high tables in the bar area. Larger dishes to be eaten in the main dining room include smoked Pollock with spinach and asparagus; and 50-day aged rump cap with wild garlic aioli and grilled calcots.

Created by Salon’s general manager Mark Gurney, a drinks menu will  wines from artisanal producers and botanical cocktails incorporating ingredients from the kitchen garden, such as rosemary which is used in the restaurant’s pisco sour; and cicely which goes into the margaritas.

Founder Nicholas Balfe and his team will be working to try and repurpose or reuse over 90% of the restaurant’s waste. Herb stalks will be used to make ferments and infusions, and old milk will be made into curd cheese.

“I’m looking forward to bringing our sustainable approach to cooking to a more European style of restaurant. We picked the name because we’re all huge fans of Larry Levan, an iconic music producer and DJ who essentially tore up the rulebook and wrote the blueprint for what dance music would become,” says founder Balfe.

“He changed the way people thought about music, and we’re seeing the beginning of a shift in the way people think about wine.”

Levan’s opening follows on from the success of the team’s Brixton restaurant, which relaunched with an extended wine store and bar at the end of last year.