By Angela Green, Content Executive, H&C News: Only Food and Courses announces fixed site in The Strand.
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Robbie Lorraine, chef patron and founder of Only Food and Courses, has announced that he is launching the concept at its first fixed site in The Strand, London.
Having previously operated in a 30ft steel container in Pop Brixton, the restaurant is moving to the dining room at the Cheshire Cheese pub, on Little Essex Street.
Lorraine will continue to offer his nostalgic take on 1980s and 90s culinary trends in a 26-cover restaurant which will also serve bar snacks to guests in the pub downstairs.
Dishes will include Lorraine’s unique take on smoked salmon and eggs, duck liver pate, prawn cocktails, beef and onions, millionaire’s shortbread, as well as snacks such as duck éclairs and lobster doughnuts.
The new site will have a similar aesthetic to its first iteration, respecting the pub’s historic Grade II-listed status but taking design inspiration from greasy spoon cafés of the 80s.
Opening on 8th December, the move comes almost two years to the day that Lorraine launched in Brixton.
Since its launch, Only Food and Courses has received glowing reviews from critics such as The Observer’s Jay Rayner and has propelled Lorraine onto TV shows such as ‘MasterChef: The Professionals’, in which he appeared as a guest judge, and The Great British Menu competition, competing with chefs from across the UK.
The new restaurant is a collaboration with the Blighty Pub Company, which has taken over management of the pub.
The building in which the Cheshire Cheese is situated has been a pub since at least the late 18th Century. It started life as a real ale public house, frequented by wordsmiths of the early 1800s, seafarers, and justices of the realm.
Lorraine said: “I’m chuffed to bits to be opening in my first bricks and mortar site. It has been a mad few years since we first launched, and I can’t quite believe how well the restaurant and our food has been received.
“Pop Brixton was a wonderful place for us to launch and the next stage in our journey being a great British pub makes perfect sense.
“I can’t wait to be able to showcase our modern take on nostalgic British food to a wider audience.”