Searcys to re-launch Barbican restaurant as Gin Joint brasserie and bar
The 88-cover restaurant and 30-cover bar, which Searcys has operated at the arts centre for the last 22 years, closed on 4 August for refurbishment work and will re-open on 9 September under its new name and with a new look.
Gin Joint, unsurprisingly, will specialise in gin, offering up to 40 different varieties, including London's first chilled gin on tap - Brokers - with a cocktail list including several new gin cocktails such as Peppercorn (Beefeater with grapefruit juice, rose syrup and black pepper); Lambeth lemonade (Beefeater 24 with Lillet Blanc, raspberry syrup and lemonade), and Gincognito (Plymouth gin, fresh lime,coriander, cane syrup and Peychaud’s bitters and tonic).
Executive chef Oliver Tobias, previously head chef at the Gherkin restaurant, has created a British menu with many of the dishes featuring gin, or ingredients of gin, as an ingredient.
Dishes, which range in price from £4.50 to £25 for starters, £10.50 to £27 for main courses and £5 to £8.50 for desserts, include Gressingham duck sausage with pickled shallot, scallop and juniper; Chilled cucumber and Beefeater Gin gazpacho with mint scone; Whole lobster with courgette, sugar snaps, lemon and borage; Cauliflower cheese ‘rarebit’ with herb and pine nut crust and pickled vegetable salad; Plum and almond crumble, star anise and orange custard; and Beefeater Gin and tonic granité.
The majority of the meat and fish dishes will be cooked on a Bertha Grill, including 35-day dry aged Longhorn fillet; Rack of Herdwick Lamb and Loch Duart salmon.
The restaurant, which opens Monday to Friday for lunch and daily for dinner, will also offer a £16, or £20 pre-theatre menu and an all-day bar menu.
Searcys, which operates five Champagne Bars in London and restaurants at St Pancras Grand, the London Transport Museum, the Gherkin as well as Bath's Pump Room, Roman Baths and the Assembly Rooms, decided on a gin theme for its Barbican restaurant re-brand because the Barbican area was known as the gin capital of the world in the late 18th century when Londoners reportedly drank 11 million gallons of gin per year.
