Latest opening: Outcrop
What: A three-month pop-up at London’s 180 The Strand that is a restaurant and arts space occupying a courtyard area of the building. Describing itself as a ‘green social club in the city’, Outcrop aims to have a positive impact on the planet by taking a sustainable approach to food and championing British ingredients and suppliers.
Who: Daniel Willis and Johnny Smith, co-founders of Michelin-starred The Clove Club and Luca, have partnered with Tom Allott, Sabrina Goreeba and Andrea Moccia, three of the team from Secret Cinema, for the project. The five of them have been joined by AngloThai couple John Chantarasak, who is in the charge of the food, and his wife Desiree, who oversees the wine offer. Outcrop’s bar manager is Rob Simpson, who has also worked at The Clove Club as well as at Gymkhana.
The food: Chantarasak builds on his Thai-British heritage with a seasonal menu that focuses on summer vegetables, native breed animals and line-caught fish, all of which are cooked over charcoal in keeping with the traditional cooking practices of rural Thailand. Chantarasak’s menu is generous, with a solid selection of starters and mains as well as larger dishes to share. The best way to kick things off is with a Carlingford oyster with sea buckthorn and laced with fermented chilli and one of the flatbreads – either with shrimp paste butter and Brixham crab or with wild garlic curry butter and string beans (a £1 donation from the flatbreads is made to the For Life Thailand charity). Other standout dishes include a dry turmeric curry of chicken offal and fine beans; and a smokey hot and sour broth made with langoustines and mussels. To share there’s a sour orange curry made with red gurnard; Blythburgh pork chop with pork fat and smoked fish chilli paste; and chicken with a palm sugar glaze and a soyabean and elderflower jaew.
To drink: Things have been kept tight on the wine front with Desiree opting to put together a small selection of sparkling, white, red and rose as well as skin contact options, with wines from England, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, and Slovenia featuring. Simpson, meanwhile, has created a cocktail list made with British spirits, botanicals and hedgerow fruits that include a herby Cropped Martini made with hogweed; a Campfire Old Fashioned that features meadowsweet and wild berry schnapps; and a tomato top negroni (pictured below - there’s no secret as to what this contains). There is a small selection of beers, softs and spirts with green or mint tea and filter coffee also on offer.
The vibe: Outcrop’s outside covered space amid the concrete of the large brutalist building contrasts well with makeshift decking and lots of foliage greeting you once you walk past the open kitchen and opposite bar that are the restaurant’s gatekeepers. Willis' and Smith’s passion for music is also explored in the space (the pair were aspiring DJs before entering the world of restaurants) with Outcrop having a DJ booth for live sets that will in the future host talent such as Tash LC (19 August), and Chris Tindall (26 August). A summer venues in the city go, it's a pretty cool place to hang.
And another thing: There a big plans for Outcrop once the AngloThai pop-up ends its run in September, so watch this space.
1 Surrey St, Temple, London, WC2R 2ND
https://www.outcrop.social/
