Gail's Artisan Bakery to launch bread-inspired restaurant Gail's Kitchen

The Bayley Street all-day dining venue will open on 21 November offering a full menu at breakfast, lunch and dinner, including afternoon tea, while a wine and beer-driven bar menu will also offer sharing plates in the afternoon and evening.

Opportunistic​

Gail's Kitchen is the brainchild of Tom Molnar, the co-founder of the seven-year-old Gail's bakeries business, who told BigHospitality the opening had been largely opportunistic.

"We had this space that was too big for Gail's Artisan Bakery and then we met James Adams, who is the chef, and the food team and it all just came together. There wasn't a big strategic plan - we are only really going to do one of these," he explained.

The 40-cover venue is adjacent to a recently-opened Gail's store and café as part of the building which houses the Bloomsbury Myhotel.

Bread-inspired​

Former Fifteen and River Café chef James Adams will head up the team working from an open kitchen which will allow diners to watch the majority of the bread-inspired dishes being prepared from scratch. Some of the bread, which takes up to three days to make, will continue to be baked in the company's West Hendon HQ.

An oven in the centre of the restaurant will, Molnar said, put bread at the heart of the restaurant both literally and figuratively. 

"We started doing tastings in June and we really thought this could work. Every Wednesday we would fill our bellies up from seven at night till one in the morning on amazing food and wine doing each other's recipes," he revealed.

Sharing plates and dishes, with an average price point of £15 per head, will be baked in the bespoke oven. They include whole sea trout baked in salt with braised spinach.

Desserts will also revolve around bread and dough with a croissant dough-wrapped pear and an ice cream sandwich both on offer.

Molnar said he thought the opening of Gail's Kitchen could, with the Real Bread movement and the Great British Bake Off, lead restaurants to improve their bread offer.

"I think chefs have always appreciated good bread but I think now the general public is expecting to see better bread around."

Luke Johnson​

The restaurant launch comes just over a year since serial entrepreneur Luke Johnson took a stake in the business.​ "He has helped us define what we are doing," Molnar explained.

"He pushed us by saying 'you are having a great time doing all these recipes but what does it stand for?' You need to have some clarity and communicate it to people. He is a risk taker too," Molnar concluded.