Mele e Pere duo launch first site outside London
Located on independent restaurant hotspot Church Road, Pesca Trattoria offers seasonal dishes inspired by Italian family recipes in a ‘relaxed, fun and contemporary environment’.
Pesca Trattoria head chef Ashley Cripps has worked alongside the group’s co-founder and executive chef Andrea Mantovani to devise a menu with a strong focus on seasonality, provenance and utilising quality local suppliers.
Small plates including sea bass carpaccio, grapefruit and fennel; smoked buratta with heritage tomato and courgette; and steak tartare with bone marrow aioli and focaccia crostini.
Mains are generally based on seafood, with options including crab ravioli with lemon and samphire; and squid ink linguine with octopus and roasted tomato.
The space will also be home to an extensive Spritz bar run by Pesca Trattoria’s co-owner Edward Scothern - who was general manager at Mele e Pere for seven years - and his partner Stephanie Marechal, who managed Fitzrovia’s Newman Street Tavern.
Mantovani and Peter Hughes launched Mele e Pere in Brewer Street in 2012, following up with Gotto Trattoria in Hackney Wick in 2016 and The Lock Inn pub, also in Hackney Wick, last year.
“Although the past 18 months have been tough, we feel incredibly lucky to be in a position to expand the group with Pesca," says Hughes. "To have Ed now become a co-founder of this new venture with Stephanie, perfectly reflects our ethos of running a business with friends that become family.”
