Billed as a vibrant and informal ‘modern bistro’, the restaurant will be located on the prominent corner of Brewer Street and Warwick Street.
Nessa will be the third project from Guy Ivesha’s Maslow’s group, which also runs Mortimer House and Mortimer House Kitchen in Fitzrovia.
Drawing on both British influences and Cenci’s ‘passion for global flavours’, Nessa will offer ‘elegant yet playful, inventive, British cuisine’.
Snacks will include oysters, hot sauce, crackers and hibiscus mignonette; and Cheese and onion croquettes with grape husk mustard while small plates will take in brioche with black pudding and brown butter; celeriac carbonara, confit egg, parmesan breadcrumbs, truffle; and teak tartare with beef fat pangratatto, raw egg, charred bread.
More substantial dishes will include bulgar wheat stuffed cabbage, parsnip purée and herb oil; and Mussels, cider, parsley and seeded garlic baguette; roast chicken, with morels, chicken butter sauce; and Cenci’s interpretation of the hot pot, in the form of the Ox cheek hot pot with confit potatoes.
Desserts will offer mixture of sweet and savoury dishes including Welsh rarebit, dark rye and truffle; and Cheese mille-feuille with Baron Bigod and hot honey; baked Alaska with seasonal fruit; and Black Forest trifle.
The restaurant will be open all day with a breakfast menu of dishes including English muffin with a sausage patty, fried egg and cheese; Banana french toast, caramelised banana, maple pecans; crab benedict, poached eggs, crumpet, béarnaise sauce; and Homemade cereals with milk.
The 98-cover restaurant will be located on the ground floor of the new 1 Warwick members’ house in a renovated 1910 Neo-Baroque building.
Designed by boutique interior architecture and design firm Fettle, Nessa will be ‘full of the aesthetic character associated with the Maslow’s group’ and incorporate two spaces: a ‘sophisticated yet unpretentious bar’ and ‘inviting’ dining area.
Cenci’s early career saw him cook at London’s Noble Rot and Michelin-starred Restaurant Laurent in Paris, before joining Duck & Waffle as senior sous chef ahead of the skyscraper-based restaurant’s opening in 2012. He later progressed to executive chef.
Cenci left his role overseeing the food at Borough Market restaurant Stoney Street and 26 Grains in Covent Garden earlier this year.
Cenci previously headed up Loyal Tavern in London’s Bermondsey, which closed in early 2020 due to the impact of the Covid pandemic.
