(Updated 23/5 with opening date and menu)
She's best known for the cakes and teas she serves up at Bea's of Bloomsbury, and more recently Bea Vo has been running a successful weekend diner at Maltby Street too. Now she's working on opening that diner Stax in a permanent location at Carnaby's Kingly Court.
The all day diner takes its name from Memphis based 1960s record label Stax Records and will offer all the things that were a hit at Bea's Diner - starting with a breakfast menu that includes buttermilk pancakes, custardy French toasts, homemade granola, bagels and poached eggs on muffin with hollandaise.
For lunch and dinner, there will be an American focus, including burgers (hand ground, using British organic free-range beef from Willowbrook Farm - and recently tested at a Burger Monday event), deep fried chicken sandwiches with apple and poppyseed slaw and triple cooked fries. It'll also have Bea's new signature ‘Onion Blossom’ - a large onion which is cut to resemble a flower, battered in special spices and deep-fried (we recently had something similar to this on a visit to Cape Town and are very pleased to see a version making an appearance here).
The recent Burger Monday event added a Duffin Sundae too - Baked doughnut muffin with Gelatorino Fior Di Latte gelato, fudge sauce, salted caramel sauce & whipped cream - so hopefully that'll be putting in an appearance too.
Talking about Stax, Vo says; "I think it’s time to see if it can stand alone. I really want Stax to be a great place to drop in at any time, from breakfast, to a post club meal and anything in between. This will be the new home and creative outlet for my love of Americana and my nostalgia at my American upbringing, so look out for my Crawfish boils, movie nights and more.”
Stax Carnaby will open with a soft launch from 13-18 June with 50% off the food bill and then open officially on Monday 23 June 2014 at 1.7 Kingly Court, Carnaby, W1B 5PW.
Opening times will be Sunday to Thursday, 8am – 11pm; Friday and Saturday, 8am – 1am. For more information, and to keep up with details of the soft launch, follow them on @StaxDiner.
