Sebastian Lyall on his 'Covid 19-proof' restaurant
The as yet unnamed restaurant will be located on the ground floor of the group’s Chelsea Funhouse on London’s King’s Road and will feature full-length Perspex separators that double up as art between tables and allow guests to cook or finish some of their dishes on hobs installed into table tops.
Speaking on BigHospiality's latest United We Stand podcast, Sebastian Lyall, founder and CEO of Lollipop Group, says that the new venture, which is due to open at the end of July, will combine people’s recent experiences of having to cook at home each day with the excitement of being able to go out to eat again.
“It will be a restaurant experience where customers get to make their own food at their tables,” he says.
“Some food will be cooked in the kitchen, some food will be made by the guests and the dishes will come together on their tables.
“A chunk is done in the kitchen and then sauces and sides, garnishes and the chopping of some food and the plating – what a head chef might do in the kitchen – will be done by customers at the table.”
“People are cooking a lot at home. We’ve tried to replicate that experience.”
Lyall also speaks about the launch of ‘Cocktails by Lollipop’: a nationwide cocktail delivery service, offering bottled cocktails made by the team’s expert mixologists that come complete with garnishes to add; and Gulp, the company’s Etsy-style marketplace that sells a bespoke range of wines and other drinks from off-high street suppliers such as Liberty Wines, Enotria & Co, and Thomson Scott.
Lyall says the company also has plans top open a further venue in Shoreditch at the start of 2021.
#UnitedWeStand has been created by William Reed hospitality titles BigHospitality, Restaurant magazine and Morning Advertiser and is supported by Britvic, CocaCola European Partners and Unilever Food Solutions.
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