Think.Eat.Drink ethically-sourced restaurant to open in King’s Cross
T.E.D was originally created as a consultancy to help companies in the food and drinks industry build environmentally-aware businesses that were commercially successful at the same time.
Founder of T.E.D Jamie Grainger-Smith said: “I founded the consultancy because I thought there was a need for awareness around eco-friendliness, responsibility and procurement, and wanted to help people manage it into their businesses. I believe that this awareness is the future of the industry. It’s becoming popular now, but I see it growing even more.”
The T.E.D restaurant in King’s Cross will be taking the concept and putting it into practice. The venue will have 100 covers spread over two floors and will be open seven days a week offering breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Grainger-Smith said: “I’m a restaurateur in my heart of hearts. Restaurants are extremely powerful and I thought bringing our T.E.D concept into a restaurant environment seemed like a natural step. We also felt like we should be putting what we say into practice.”
A network of suppliers
The restaurant places an emphasis on serving food with nutritional benefits and will use seasonable produce that has been sourced from British suppliers.
Breakfast at T.E.D includes a choice of coffees, juices and smoothies as well as a choice of fresh pastries. Lunch is focused on fresh baked bread with seasonal vegetables, cured meat and fish from local producers. The dinner menu is larger and features dishes such as mackerel fillet with seaweed, cucumber and sesame, herb marinated Scottish beef fillet with roasted red pepper, salsa verde and broccoli, and pearl barley risotto with porcini and truffled herb mascarpone.
The restaurant also boasts a wine list which includes a number of biodynamic and carbon-neutral choices. It will serve a variety of organic spirits and mixers and a cocktail menu alongside a range of non-alcoholic options.
Grainger-Smith said: “We have a whole community of suppliers we’ve been working with for many years, a community that’s hopefully going to grow. Anyone who supplies is part of an accredited membership scheme, and that includes the builders and accountants and chemical suppliers, not just the food suppliers.”
The sustainable choice
The location and site for T.E.D was chosen carefully by Grainger-Smith, who has worked around King’s Cross for 10 years and loves the area. The site has undergone a great deal of work to turn it into a sustainable restaurant.
Design companies DrieDee International and The House With were chosen to work on the site along with a number of contractors which have eco-sensitive practices. The restaurant space has been put together using sustainably sourced fixtures and fittings and also features a selection of salvaged furniture including reclaimed tiles, up-cycled tables and chairs, a lava top bar and re-used stained glass windows.
Grainger-Smith said: “We want people to walk in and not even realise how we’ve used sustainable means to put the restaurant together. The idea is you walk into T.E.D and it’ll just be a beautiful looking restaurant where you can have great food. If a customer wants to know more about the sustainability bit they can ask the staff, we can communicate that in other ways.”
When asked if he’d like to open more restaurants in future, Grainger-Smith said: “Hopefully there will be more restaurants; this one is the first stepping stone. I truly believe in this concept and I’d love to take it further.”
T.E.D will be located at 47-51 Caledonian Road in King’s Cross.
