BlackBook Back in the
BlackBook Back in the Swing CAPITAL EATS Edible Expectations London’s hottest new restaurants draw inspiration from far and wide Given the extent to which the hospitality industry has suffered this past year, it’s not surprising London has seen a slew of high-profile closures, none more mourned than Le Caprice, an institution and celebrity magnet since 1947. But there’s no shortage of openings to take their place. There’s already excitement about Pantechnicon (pantechnicon.com), improbably named after the type of lorry usually used for moving furniture (let’s hope that’s not tempting fate), a handsome stuccofronted building in Belgravia with five floors of Nordic and Japanese dining and retail, promising “a culinary journey from Osaka and Hokkaido to Copenhagen, Reykjavik and Oslo”. Its south-facing fifth-floor roof terrace is already open, as are Sachi Yatai, a street-level kiosk selling gyoza and little fishshaped sweet pancakes known as taiyaki topped with ice cream; the French-Japanese fusion Café Kitsuné (for caramel miso rice GOOD LUXE THE DEPARTMENT STORE pudding brioche and matcha croissants); and the more formal 70-cover Nordic restaurant Eldr, helmed by Joni Ketonen, formerly of Jason Atherton’s No 5 Social. Over in Soho, Chris Corbin and Jeremy King, proprietors of The Wolseley, are relaunching Manzi’s (corbinandking.com), a two-storey reinvention of a long-defunct Italianate Soho seafood restaurant off Leicester Square, founded in the 1950s. They won’t be reconstructing its decor (for those who remember its red-check tablecloths, this may be a blessing). And the cooking is likely to be more refined than it was. But it should be buzzing, and it won’t be expensive. As King has said, “In the spirit of Brasserie Zédel, we want it to be fun and affordable.” Soho will see two other key openings this summer. Angelo Sato, formerly head chef at the two-Michelin-starred Restaurant Story, is cutting the ribbon on a yakitori bar on Frith Street named Humble Chicken (humblechickenuk.com), serving “comb-totail Japanese tapas”. And on Brewer Street, Sam and Eddie Hart of Barrafina fame are opening El Pastor Soho (tacoselpastor.co.uk), a taqueria that will serve delectable seafood tostadas, crispy duck tacos and an exhaustive library of agave spirits. What with Portland, Honey & Smoke and Ibérica, Fitzrovia’s otherwise unlovely Great Portland Street has become quite the foodie hangout. Its latest arrival is Raw (rawfishlondon.com), a second branch of Ivan Simeoli’s Brick Lane seafood restaurant and fishmonger. Contrary to its name, the highly original dishes – seaweed gnocchi, squidink arancini, tempura octopus with crispy black cabbage – are mostly cooked. So don’t expect sushi: for that, head over to Mayfair, where the French celebrity chef Cyril Lignac is opening a branch of Paris’s Bar des Prés (bardespres.com) at 16 Albemarle Street. From top: counterside dining at Humble Chicken; satay beef fillet with lime at Bar des Prés; preparing margaritas on the rocks at El Pastor Soho This has been a brutal year for retail, and in the major thoroughfares of London’s West End as many as one in five properties stand empty. But the venerable department store Liberty has bucked the trend. Last year, a subtle rebranding and a new website were launched, and this summer will see the unveiling of a refreshed store, the fabric of its distinctive half-timbered landmark building having been meticulously restored and updated. Tudor in style, and incorporating more than 1,500 windows (some painted in the style of Albrecht Dürer), it was originally constructed in 1924, almost half a century after Arthur Lasenby Liberty first founded his emporium. The structure was made using 680 cubic metres of oak and teak from two decommissioned Royal Navy ships, HMS Impregnable (launched in 1810) and HMS Hindustan (1841), in order to call to mind “a great ship filled with treasures docked in the streets of London”. As evidence that its founder’s “spirit of discovery lives on”, a new interiors range, The Modern Collector, launches this summer featuring wallpapers and fabrics. Based on and developed from those in its splendid archive, they are at once traditional and – in the subtle ways they’ve been redrawn and their inventive colour combinations – contemporary. libertylondon.com PHOTOS FROM TOP: © HUMBLE CHICKEN, © BAR DES PRES, © EL PASTOR SOHO 26 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
Mike Eghan at Piccadilly Circus, London (1967), left, and Sick Hagemeyer Shop Assistant (c1957) by Ghana-born photographer James Barnor, shown at an ongoing exhibition at the Serpentine North Gallery PHOTOS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: © JAMES BARNOR/AUTOGRAPH ABP; COURTESY AUTOGRAPH; GETTY IMAGES; © ARS, NY AND DACS, LONDON 2021; PHOTO: DAMIAN GRIFFITHS/COURTESY PACE GALLERY BEST IN SHOW Art on Our Minds A shortlist of horizon-broadening exhibitions across town This year, there won’t be a Serpentine Party – the annual art-world gala that counts among the hottest invitations of the summer season – but there will be a Serpentine Pavilion (serpentinegalleries. org). Back in 2000, the public art gallery commissioned an experimental temporary structure from Zaha Hadid, which stood in Kensington Gardens from June till the autumn and established what has become a tradition. Over the years, a succession of the world’s greatest architects – Daniel Libeskind, Oscar Niemeyer, Rem Koolhaas, Olafur Eliasson, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel and Bjarke Ingels among them – have created pavilions for the park. This year’s iteration, by the Johannesburg practice Counterspace, will run from on 11 June till 17 October. Indoors, the Serpentine will be showing work by the New York-based painter Jennifer Packer (to 22 August) and the British-Ghanaian photographer James Barnor (to 22 October). Among the high-profile museum shows scheduled for this summer are David Hockney and Michael Armitage at the Royal Academy (royalacademy.org.uk, till 26 and 19 September, respectively); Paula Rego (7 July to 24 October) at Tate Britain; Rodin (to 21 November), and not to mention Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms (till June 2022), at Tate Modern (tate.org. uk); Jean Dubuffet at the Barbican (to 22 August, barbican.org.uk) and Eileen Agar at the Whitechapel Gallery (to 29 August, whitechapelgallery.org). As to buying art, it’s worth noting that Pace Gallery (pacegallery.com) is leaving its premises in the Royal Academy for Hanover Square, and 800 squares metres of space vacated last year by Blain|Southern and now reconfigured and designed by Jamie Fobert Architects. No word on its opening show yet. But given the calibre of its artists, which range from the giants of AbEx to Jeff Koons, by way of younger painters such as Adrian Ghenie, Loie Hollowell and Mao Yan, expect something stellar. ONE-STOP SHOP BUZZWORTHY BROWNS A recent installation by American artist Robert Mangold at Pace Gallery When in 1970, Sidney and Joan Burstein opened the first Browns boutique, they created a legend. Later, the venerable Mrs B, as the fashion cognoscenti know her, bumped into Calvin Klein at Studio 54, she persuaded him to launch his brand in the UK. Three years on, wowed by John Galliano’s degree show, she bought his entire collection. No one has an eye for the superbrands of the future like she does. This summer, after half a century on South Molton Street, its flagship moves to a new home on Brook Street, complete with a club, a concierge, a bar (and a nail bar), a restaurant (with outdoor seating) – and even a resident tattoo artist (by appointment). And, of course, there’ll be womenswear, menswear, shoes and jewellery, too. brownsfashion.com PLEASE CHECK THE LATEST GOVERNMENT ADVICE BEFORE BOOKING TRAVEL OR DEPARTING ON ANY TRIP CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 27
