Farringdon and Smithfield continues its foodie resurgence, with news of another opening, this time from the people behind the Evans & Peel Detective Agency.
Kench and Bibesy is opening on Long Lane, just by Smithfield Market, (taking the place of the recently departed Morgan M). It'll be open for lunch and dinner - and it's following a strict practice of sustainable sourcing everything from the "British Isles". For lunch, and something that will likely be a draw for the City locals, there will be a sandwich menu, paired up with local craft beers (or British coffee).
We caught up with Chris Peel to find out more about the evening offering. "We will be offering a concise menu of small plates. It will change with the seasons, whether that be quarterly, monthly, weekly or daily. We will be trying to do as much in-house as possible. From light butchery to cheese making, nothing is off limits. We are even making our own vinegar! Mike wants to have to have complete control over the products that he is using without forgetting where the ingredients come from."
Dishes planned for the menu are Kench Chowder ("actually more like Cullen Skink") which is smoked fish soup, shelled winkles, roast parsnip, fennel powder, onion ash and garlic chives and Chicken Confit - chicken slow cooked in its own fat, with poultry potatoes, apple and raisin sauce.
For their drinks and cocktails, expect some experimentation. "As most American whiskey is only aged in new American oak, we wanted to create add a unique finish to the whiskey similar to what is found in Scotch. To to this, we place plum sake and oak chips in a siphon and use gas pressure to infuse the sake flavour to the oak chips. We then vacuum seal the infused oak with rye whiskey and hold it in a water bath on a low temperature. This accelerates and deepens the infusion giving a delicious and unique finish to the rye"
Cocktails will include the "Oenological Manhattan" - "The three variations of a Manhattan (Sweet, Dry and Perfect) were the inspiration for this cocktail. We first make a large batch of Sweet Manhattan and dissolve oenological tannins. The resulting drink is a Sweet Manhattan with a drying sensation on the tongue from the tannins, making it both a sweet and a dry Manhattan at the same time."
For the basement, things are a little bit more secretive - and it'll be closer in theme to their Detective Agency than the more traditional bar and restaurant upstairs. All they'll tell us at the moment is that they're calling it "the ground floor’s illegitimate love child" and " we love a good entrance to an underground cocktail bar."
Kench and Bibesy opens at 50 -52 Long Lane, Smithfield, London, EC1A 9EJ on November 20th. Follow them at @KENCHANDBIBESY
