As longstanding Hot Dinners readers should know, we do love a good wine bar. So we're very interested in combo wine bar and French restaurant Marjorie's which is opening in Soho soon.
It comes from a duo that are new to hospitality, Michael Searle & Josh Anderson but who have brought in someone very interesting on the food side, head chef Giacomo Peretti (ex-Le Gavroche, Temper, Firebird and The Culpeper), who's the third partner in the business.
Open for lunch and dinner every day of the week, we're told to expect a modern take on French cuisine, "still respecting classic technique" and using both British and French ingredients. On that menu, there will be dishes like:
- Chicken liver rocher, hazelnut & morello
- Fried courgette, rouille & trout roe
- Escargot, seaweed & pine nut cream
- Crab tart with crab bisque
- Bavette, egg yolk & girolles
- Raspberry & tarragon sorbet
There will also be a cheeseboard, and they're working with La Fromagerie on that. As for the wine list, that will be all-French, featuring contemporary and small-batch producers from across the country. The menu will be concise and changing seasonally, so it should be fairly accessible with regularly changing wines by the glass.
It's a relatively compact space split across two levels (ground-floor and basement, taking over what used to be Kua 'Aina poke) and fitting in just under 50 seats. Expect lots of dark panelling in the downstairs room, inside a Soho cellar vault.
On the opening, co-founder Michael says, "We've always been completely inspired by the ‘bar à vins’ of Paris' outer arrondissements where young Parisian chefs and restaurateurs work hard to show a contemporary edge to French cuisine... There's an edge to this certain style of wine bar that offers food and wine of exceptional quality in a totally laid back, laissez-faire style, almost saying that top-quality food and wine should be a given."
And as for the name, that's in memory of Michael's late grandmother and "self-certified Francophile". We imagine she'd be pretty happy to have this very promising new addition to Soho named after her.
More about Marjorie's
Where is it? 26 Foubert's Place, Soho, London W1F 7PP
When does it open? May 2024
Find out more: Follow them on Instagram @marjories.london.
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