A new neighbourhood cafe and wine bar is coming to South Kensington, from the same people who are behind The South Kensington Club. This all-day affair will be open to all from 7am to 11pm.
What you need to know about Iddu
It's part café, part restaurant - and will have an outside terrace too. It's coming from one of the founders of the next-door South Kensington Club, Luca Del Bono who is drawing on his own Sicilian family roots. Apparently the name Iddu is "a word Sicilians use to describe the volcano of Stromboli." While the club is a members only affair, this will be open to all.
There's a Sicilian chef in the Kitchen too. Francesca D’Amico was born in the Sicilian capital Palermo and grew up beside the sea just outside the second city of Taormina. She's been specialising in private dining before joining Iddu.
The all-day menu will include some takeaway items for locals too. The menu includes:
- Home-made granola for breakfast (using combinations of banana, blueberry, acai, apple, chia, apricot, pecan and cranberry) with organic coconut yoghurt; egg-white frittata with asparagus and feta; organic spiced pear porridge with pistachio crumble; crushed avocado and tomato on toast; oatcakes, seeded bagels, croissants and pastries; truffled scrambled eggs on wholemeal, spelt or gluten-free breads.
- For lunch and dinner: salads include baked ricotta (from volcano) and balsamic; main dishes such as swordfish, marinated shrimp on cannellini beans, kamut linguine with organic Sicilian tomato sauce are on the menu.
- Desserts include Sicilian delights such as cnnoli and real granita – a typical Sicilian refreshment made of water, and various seasonal fruit. It originated in the 800s when the Moors resided in Sicily, bringing with them frozen 'sherbets' made with fruit juice or roses.
- Plus there will be food to take away from the counter include: quinoa arancini with smoked tomato and mozzarella; bruschetta with marinated anchovies; prosciutto crudo with spelt bread; smoked aubergine, burrata antipasti; panini with tallegio and fig.
And Sicilian coffee. They will import coffee beans from Barbera, a coffee producer founded in Messina, in the north-east of Sicily in 1870.
Wine will play a big part. It will, naturally, mainly focus on Sicilian wines, many selected from Tasca d'Almerita, the vineyards belonging to a Sicilian family who have been producing fine wines for more than 200 years. There will be a cocktail list too - including a hot tomato vodka; a London spritz (prosecco, rhubarb liqueur, soda); a cucumber and rosemary gin & tonic; and a collection of prosecco bellinis made with beet, lavender or rose. And if you're off alcohol, there's Sicilian lemonade as well as the South Kensington Club's own cold pressed juices.
IDDU is in South Kensington, at 44 Harrington Road, London SW7. It will open on February 14 from 7am and close at 11pm. The reservations line is 020 7589 1991
