The 40-cover floating restaurant is being launched by brothers Fin and Lorcan Spiteri and will open on 10 March in a converted working canal barge. Called Caravel, it takes its name from a small Spanish ship or sailing boat that was popular in the 15 to 17th centuries.
The brothers, who are the sons of St John founding partner and restaurant consultant Jon Spiteri and Rochelle Canteen co-founder Melanie Arnold, took over the boat, which is located in between Hoxton and Islington next door to Holborn Studios, during lockdown. It was previously restored by the team at Holborn Studios in the mid 90s and named Poppy.
Open for dinner only Thursday to Saturday, Caravel will draw on Lorcan’s experience working at London restaurants Quo Vadis, Oldroyd and Rochelle Canteen, as well as at his Guinea Fowlers pop-up. It will serve a regularly changing a la carte menu with snacks such as the house made bread and butter, and cured meats, and starters including sesame prawn toast with spiced tartare; confit duck rissoles; and violet artichoke with kohlrabi.
Main dishes will span a range of British, Italian and French classics, with white crab tagliatelle, fennel and garlic; crispy pork belly, green beans and anchoïde; and roast hake, confit potatoes and curry sauce. Desserts will include a blood orange jelly with honeycomb; and almond cake with salted caramel ice cream.
Brother Fin will run the dining room and has also built on his time behind the bar at 69 Colebrooke Row, Untitled and Ladies & Gents as well as his work as a cocktail consultant to create the drinks list at Caravel. Ready-to-serve options will include a blood orange margarita; a rhubarb Negroni; and a Rum’n’Coke Old Fashioned.
“Lorcan and I are so excited to finally open Caravel,” he says. “We have actively transformed this barge from a rusty old thing to this incredible space, and can’t wait to have people on board.”
The brothers are not the first to take to Regent's Canal for a floating restaurant. In May last year Mathew Carver opened The Cheese Bar, a floating cheese restaurant moored on the canal.