Latest opening: Camille
What: A compact French bistro on Borough Market’s Stoney Street. Billed as a ‘reflection of imagined jaunts through regional France’, Camille offers a blackboard menu of rustic-yet-precisely cooked dishes that wouldn’t look out of place on a hip Parisian backstreet alongside a carefully chosen selection of low-intervention wine.
Who: Camille is the fifth restaurant from Clare Lattin and Tom Hill joining Ducksoup and Raw Duck in London and the more recently launched Emilia and No. 14 in Ashburton, South Devon. The duo - who have been working together since 2011 when they launched Ducksoup in Soho - have partnered with restaurant accountancy guru and operator Ratnesh Bagdai on the site, which was most recently inhabited by premium sandwich purveyor Sons + Daughters. Now largely based in the South West cooking at their Italian restaurant Emilia, Lattin and Hill had not planned to open a further London site but were bounced into it by Bagdai. "It wasn't an opportunity we could say no to," Lattin told us earlier this month. Camille is being spearheaded by Meghan Morrell – who was recently promoted from Little Duck general manager to the group’s operations manager – and chef Elliot Hashtroudi, who was most recently at wine bar 107 (the former P.Franco site in Hackney).
The vibe: Previously premium sandwich purveyor Sons + Daughters, the site has 40-covers inside and a similar amount outside (the terrace will launch later this year). The trio haven’t made any structural changes and have largely retained the layout of its former occupant. Key changes include the addition of some dark wood panelling, a handsome cream and pillar box-red paint job that goes nicely with the site’s existing concrete floor, marble tables and pewter-topped bar.
The food: Hashtroudi – whose cooking CV also includes nose-to-tail pioneer St John – has created a menu that is perfectly in step with Camille’s timeless Parisian bistro aesthetic. Made up of small plates, main course-sized dishes, and larger plates for sharing the daily-changing blackboard menu includes cured pig’s cheeks with walnut; trotter and parsley terrine; ox tongue with trompettes and riesling; fromage de tete with blood orange; langoustine cassoulet; lemon sole with snail butter; onglet steak with café de Paris butter (pictured above); and burnt milk tart. Spend per head is a little higher than at Ducksoup and Raw Duck due to the use of some more elevated ingredients - some are sourced from Borough Market itself - with average spend per head around £50.
To drink: Ducksoup was a forerunner in London’s natural wine movement championing low-intervention at a time when the genre was in its infancy – on these shores, at least – and was not widely understood. Lattin and Hill’s other restaurant projects have followed suit. At Camille, the focus is on French producers although other European countries aren’t excluded. Still wines start at £8 per glass and £45 by the bottle and there is a good amount of choice below £60. There’s also a cellar list with some more premium options from some of the biggest names in natural wine. Cocktails include a Blood Orange Garibaldi and a White Negroni made with gin, vermouth, chartreuse and Suze Liqueur.
And another thing: Pierre Koffmann’s Memories of Gascony cookbook sparked the idea for the restaurant. The name of Lattin, Hill and Bagdai's new place is also a nod to the great French chef – Camille was the name of his grandma.
2-3 Stoney Street, London, SE1 9AA
www.camillerestaurant.co.uk
