Hot Dinners popped over to Shoreditch last night for the official opening of new restaurant Assemblage. It's the brainchild of entrepreneur Alicia Whitby and chef James Knight-Pacheco (pictured here). Knight-Pacheco was a runner-up on Raymond Blanc's TV show The Restaurant and must have impressed - Blanc offered him a job at Le Manoir afterwards.
Whitby comes from hospitality stock - her father used to own a hotel in Scotland. Rather impressively she's managed to get this restaurant off the ground from concept to opening the doors in under eight months, all whilst completing a degree - she's been writing essays between service.
Assemblage aims to be a marriage of food and art, according to its website. Alicia told us; "We're aiming at the 25-45 market. I think a lot of people my age are intimidated by fine dining and Assemblage is going to be slightly more relaxed - not as pretentious as something you'd get in Mayfair. James and I are both young, so that's who we're trying to sell it to."
The menu is a bit punchy with mains hovering mainly between £22 and £28. There's a tasting menu which you can have for £65 (or £90 with matching wines) while lunch sounds like a good way to try the cooking with a bargain two courses for £20.
