Blue Mountain School to open Cycene in collaboration with chef Theo Clench
Meaning kitchen in Old English, Cycene will take over two floors of the restored Shoreditch townhouse including the first-floor rooms that were previously home to Mãos, the duo’s previous culinary project which closed earlier this year.
The two floors are currently being ‘extensively remodelled’ to create a bar on the ground floor, a significantly larger kitchen and a 16-cover, first floor dining room.
The look and feel of Cycene will reflect the domestic-style, intimate environment of Blue Mountain School itself, which by day exhibits high-end collections of clothes, ceramics, art and furniture with a visit to the restaurant intended to ‘emulate the feeling of dinner in a private home’.
Clench - who is best known for being executive chef of high-end African restaurant Akoko and, before that, head chef of Portland, will share his ‘ethos of extracting optimum flavour from the simplest of ingredients’.
The chef’s 10-course menu will marry classic techniques with subtle influences from his travels, namely Eastern Asia and Australasia, whilst drawing on his passion for seafood.
Dishes will include Devon crab, white kombu and green tartlet; Carlingford oyster with cucumber and Kaluga caviar; mackerel with plum, shisho and dashi; and slow-cooked turbot, lettuce sauce, sake and Oscietra caviar.
The wine list will be curated by James Brown, working with coveted estates “practicing minimalist, terroir driven winemaking practices”.
Guests will be able to order from a short list of cocktails or opt for a flight of soft drink pairings, which will be made in-house.
Bookings for Cycene will be live from noon on 10 August.
Blue Mountain School - which corners Chance Street and Redchurch Street - was launched by the Browns in 2018.
Originally headed by Nuno Mendes, Mãos won a Michelin star 18 months after opening.
Mendes parted ways with the restaurant just ahead of the pandemic in early 2020.
Then Mãos head chef Edoardo Pellicano was handed full control of the kitchen and - during the pandemic - led an overhaul of the restaurant that saw it drop its original communal dining concept in favour of a more traditional restaurant setup.
In March this year it was announced that Mãos would close, with James saying that the restaurant had outgrown the space “both creatively and functionally”.
