Tarell Mcintosh launches crowdfund to reopen Paradise Cove in Battersea

Mcintosh - better known as Chef Tee - has set up a crowdfund​​ to raise money for the project, with an initial target of £20,000.

Described as an ‘all-or-nothing’ campaign to restore the disused 180-year-old Queen’s Arm’s pub in Battersea, which closed last year, Tee is hoping to bring his Caribbean restaurant to the site with what he says will be ‘England’s newest, Craft, Community and Caribbean pub’.

The chef says he has six weeks to raise as much money as possible, highlighting costs that include legal fees and the ability to negotiate a longer rent-free period and begin ‘costly repairs’. Funds will also be used to secure a rent deposit and install a new kitchen.

It has been a challenging few years for Tee, who opened Sugarcane restaurant in Clapham during the first national lockdown. The restaurant was a victim of burglary in February last year with a crowdfund set up by locals​​ to pay towards £15,000 of costs caused by the incident.

The publicity that surrounded the crowdfund put the restaurant on the radar of The Observer restaurant critic Jay Rayner, who gave it a positive review.​​

The restaurant later changed its name to Paradise Cove following a legal dispute.

In January this year the restaurant closed with Tee at the time saying “it’s the end of this chapter...But I don’t think it is the end of the story”.

The project is currently approaching half its £20,000 target​​.