Updated 12pm
A surprising number of you didn't actually twig that this was our April Fool this year. We've had people contacting us about PR, wondering about soft launch dates - you name it. So if anyone's looking for a new business idea, this one's free!
Here at Hot Dinners we've pretty much lost count of the press releases we've had in where a restaurant's menu promises to be both seasonal and chock full of locally-sourced ingredients. So when news reached us of a new opening that promises the exact opposite, it did make us sit up.
Distance, which is opening in Marylebone later this month, was apparently devised as a reaction to all the restaurants touting seasonality and local provenance.
Owner Den Duraka who also has a number of restaurants in Moscow and St Petersburg, says he was 'inspired' to open Distance by the current London restaurant scene. "Quite frankly I'm bored with people banging on about how they're growing their own rooftop rocket or are serving wine made in their airing cupboards. We wanted a return to the days when going out to eat meant trying something really different."
To that end, Distance will serve dishes where every ingredient will come from at least 200 miles outside London. Which means there'll be no London craft beers, but instead Fijian grog. No Hampshire watercress, but plenty of Mediterranean microherbs. Dishes on the launch menu include:
- USDA beef sliders with Vermont Farmstead cheese
- Puglian burrata with Mount Vesuvius San Marzano tomatoes
- Tokyo fish market tuna tatare with Siberian caviar
- Peruvian chocolate torte with dragon fruit
A trick that's bound to get them press (and annoy conservationists into the bargain) is the automatic tally of food miles as you order. Any table racking up a food miles total of more than 100,000 will get a bottle of champagne on the house.
Distance will open in April 2016 at 35 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 4AA. Keep up with their news on Twitter @DistanceLondon
