Above the boozer: The main dining room will ‘elevated pub classics’
(Picture: Handout)The man behind the two Michelin-star restaurant Kitchen Table will head up a new dining experience at a newly reopened Fitzrovia pub the George next month.
James Knappett will lead the venture, Upstairs at the George, serving pub classics with a twist above the 18th century boozer, which relaunched in November after five years of closure.
Dishes will include sausage and mash — with one type of sausage made from wild venison haunch, and another from pork shoulder, both cured and stuffed in-house — alongside the likes of steak tartare with hay-smoked egg yolk, maple and black pepper sourdough; devilled veal kidneys on Flor sourdough; and Scottish langoustine scampi with chips, tartar sauce and crushed peas.
“The menu respects the heritage of British pub culture,” Knappett said. “While we will use exceptional seasonal ingredients and provenance, our menu will still reflect the magical simplicity of classic pub food. I hope the new menu will reinvigorate the nation’s love of British classics done well.”
Dinner will be served in the 28-cover main dining room, while a separate private dining room — complete with a pre-existing Victorian fireplace, a stained glass window and its own temperature-controlled wine room — will welcome up to 20 guests.
English sparkling wines, some taken from estates not served anywhere else in the UK, will stock a dedicated bar, alongside seasonal cocktails and a wider, 300-strong wine list.
The opening will mark the latest step in Knappett’s career, which has so far comprised stints working at Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Pétrus, Rick Stein’s The Seafood Restaurants, Per Se, Noma and The Ledbury. Kitchen Table opened in 2012 and received its first Michelin Star two years later, with the second arriving in 2018.
