Chef Luke Thomas to relaunch Soho members club Blacks
The 25 year-old chef, who has previously held roles including head chef at Luke’s Dining Room at Sanctum on the Green in Cookham Dean, is overseeing the creative direction of the refurbished members club.
As part of the relaunch, Thomas will be launching a Supper Club Series, featuring up-and-coming chefs as well as London-based street food operators. Open for non members, events in the series will include Catonese restaurant Duck Duck Goose, formerly at Pop-Brixton, and Cafe Habana, the New York restaurant that will take a pop-up residency at the club.
Thomas is overseeing the all-day food offer at Blacks with a menu featuring ‘nostalgic comfort foods’ as well as dishes with global influence.
“I fell in love with Blacks the moment I saw it. I’m fanatical about food and music, so Blacks - the birthplace of the supper club, in the heart of Soho with its rich musical history, felt like my natural home,” says Thomas.
“Behind the club’s understated confidence lies a wild and wonderful past, which I’m excited to bring to life for today’s members.”
“It will be a space for socialising and not social media, Blacks is a club for the exceptionally interesting and exceptionally interested. Some of the London members clubs have become little more than co-working spaces at the expense of social interaction and fun. Soho is in danger of becoming a bit bland, but that won’t be the case at Blacks.”
Blacks was launched in a four-storey Georgian townhouse on Soho’s Dean Street in 1992 by Tom Bantock and was bought by entrepreneur Roger Payne in 2017.
