Billed as ‘the world’s first cheese conveyor belt restaurant’, Pick & Cheese is the brainchild of World Cheese Awards judge and The Cheese Bar owner Mathew Carver and will open in KERB’s Seven Dials Market.
Guests are being promised a ‘bespoke cheese experience’ with more than 25 different cheeses from small producers being ferried around the restaurant along a 40 metre-long electronic belt. There will also be a selection of charcuterie from Tottenham-based cured meat supplier Blackhand Food, with the restaurant serving suggested ‘tasting flights’ of cheese and meats as well as giving diners the option to simply pluck a dish from the belt as it passes.
All cheeses will be sourced from UK-based farms and urban cheesemakers with each paired with an individual, ‘chef-driven’ condiment. Dishes will include Coolea with hazelnut brittle; and fresh ricotta with sherry cherries, with differently colour-coded handmade ceramic plates denoting different prices.
The 38-cover restaurant will also serve a selection of off-belt hot dishes, including The Cheese Truck’s classic grilled cheese sandwiches making an appearance on the menu. Carver founded The Cheese Truck in 2014 and also operates The Cheese Bar in the Grade II listed Camden Stables Market.
For dessert, the restaurant has teamed up with pud specialist Happy Endings to create cheesy soft serves, with flavours like Baron Bigod brie and Beauvale Blue in the pipeline.
A list of producer-led natural wines from Les Caves de Pyrene, selected specifically to pair with the cheeses, will also be available.
“We wanted to showcase British cheese at its best, while giving our customers the opportunity to hand-pick their cheese from our house list,” says Carver. “We hope Pick & Cheese will make amazing produce even more accessible, and help change the perception of what a cheese and wine bar has to be.”
Pick & Cheese will join traders including Club Mexicana, Yum Bun, Square Root, Rice Guys and Ink at the 23,000sq ft Covent Garden site, which is located in a 19th century former banana storage building St Thomas Neal’s Warehouse.
