How many sick days have you got left? Let’s just say you’re going to need them, because an instant classic is about to open in Farringdon and, for now, it’ll only be welcoming guests from Monday to Friday.
Tucked away behind St Bartholomew the Great church in a historic building once home to poet John Betjeman, Cloth restaurant and wine bar sees vino aficionados Joe Haynes and Ben Butterworth team up with former Lasdun, Levan and Brawn chef Tom Hurst to offer hearty, broadly Anglo-French fare and wines by ‘honest’ makers.
Serving from noon until 10, Haynes says they want the grade II listed, wood-panelled dining room to be a place where visitors can ‘come in for a five-hour lunch or graze all day’. Promising an impressive £5 corkage on Mondays, half of the wine offering will come from the co-founder’s own suppliers, which include grower champagnes, new-wave Bordeaux and much more across France and Germany, while the rest will be cherry picked from their many friends in the industry.
Hurst’s comforting food, meanwhile, will celebrate the very best British produce, with highlights including Somerset hogget with grilled cos lettuce, smoked tongue and anchovies, and brown crab and Berkswell tagliarini. Plus, he’ll be dishing up a bargain set lunch menu, with two courses for £24 and £29 for three.
Come September, the team hope to fling open their doors on Saturdays, but for now it’s time to get practising that cough.
