George Barson to head up new Bath restaurant The Beckford Canteen
The Beckford Canteen will be the second restaurant for the Beckford Group, which operates upscale pubs in Wiltshire and Somerset.
The group’s latest project occupies a ‘small but perfectly formed site’, a former Georgian greenhouse, on Bartlett Street.
There will be around 40 seats inside and a further 40 in the restaurant’s 'hidden' garden to the rear.
The Beckford Canteen will be open from midday through to the evening, serving lunch and dinner as well as drinks and snacks between the hours of 4-6pm.
The modern British menu will ‘centre around provenance and seasonality’ and include the likes of rarebit with beer pickled onions; sardines on toast; cured pig’s jowl; gurnard, shellfish sauce, sea beet; and black treacle and ginger sponge, brown butter ice cream.
Barson - who grew up in and started his cooking career in the South West - is best known for his cooking at Mayfair’s Kitty Fisher’s and its sister restaurant Cora Pearl, which he launched for owners Oliver Milburn, Tom Mullion and Tim Steel in 2018. Both the restaurants have featured in Restaurant by BigHospitality’s list of the top 100 places to eat in the UK.
Barson - whose CV prior to joining Kitty Fisher’s includes River Cottage, Viajante, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal and a spell as a development chef for Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen - was most recently at Victoria restaurant Wild by Tart
The Beckford Group is run by founders Dan Brod, Charlie Luxton and Matt Greenlees and comprises four inns with rooms and The Bottle Shop in Bath, the Bramley Products website. A further restaurant will soon launch in Bath.
“We want to rejuvenate the idea of Modern British informal dining at The Canteen,” says Brod. “Getting the best out of the best ingredients by serving simple, honest and delicious food with conviviality. The restaurant will feel paired-back with an unpretentious and comfortable environment.”
