Manteca finds new permanent home in Shoreditch
As was reported back in July, the pair have taken over the former PizzaExpress site on Curtain Road, not far from Carter's barbecue restaurant Smokestak.
However, while it was assumed at the time that the Shoreditch restaurant would operate alongside the Soho site (which recently made its debut on the Estrella Damm National Restaurant Awards Top 100 list), it has now been revealed that that iteration of Manteca will close.
The Shoreditch restaurant will open in October as the original Soho site closes its doors.
Led by Leach, Manteca Shoreditch will feature a new glass-panelled hanging room for the restaurant's in-house butchery and salumi production, and serve an 'evolved' menu of small and large sharing plates that include signatures from the Soho site as well as new dishes.
Manteca's concept takes inspiration from the regional cooking styles Leach encountered on his travels through Italy, with an emphasis on nose-to-tail cooking and hand-rolled pastas.
'Favourite' dishes set to return include the pig head fritti with apple mostarda; ‘nduja-steamed mussels with cream and parsley and sourdough bread; pickled chilli and duck sausage; and the brown crab cacio e pepe.
New plates set to feature, meanwhile, include clam flatbread made with Wildfarmed flour and Duchess Farms ancient grains; pig skin ragù with Parmesan and crispy pig skin; fazzoletti with duck ragù; and seaweed tagliatelle with smoked seaweed butter.
Larger dishes will continue to focus on fire-cooked cuts of meat and fish to share, while a changing line up of specials will include house-made stracciatella with olive oil; stuffed pig snout; zampone (stuffed trotter); or chicken offal frittata.
The drinks menu will feature a concise selection of aperitivi and amaro cocktails, alongside a wine list curated by Emily Acha Derrington that includes bottles from Italy, Europe and North America with an attention on low-intervention winemaking.
"Shoreditch finally brings Manteca to life in the way I’ve always imagined," says Leach.
"The hanging room is something we’ve wanted to do for a long time, and will give us the space to make and cure more salumi than ever, and to be quite experimental in what we do.
"We want Manteca to be somewhere that guests can come for a quick plate of pasta and glass of wine at lunch, or to take their time over cuts to share during a leisurely dinner with family and friends.”
Leach, previously of Petersham Nurseries, Pitt Cue and Kitty Fisher’s, launched Manteca in partnership with Carter on Great Marlborough Street in Soho in late 2019, the concept having originally been established by the pair during a four-month pop up at Mayfair-based residency restaurant 10 Heddon Street.
