So, what's this about Marcus Wareing opening a railway caff?
Well it's not any old station, being the refurbished and rather fab location of the St Pancras Hotel, overloooking the Eurostar terminus and home to a very posh staircase.
You mean a Posh Spice staircase.
Well, yes. Diners at The Gilbert Scott may be forgiven for experiencing a sense of déjà vu when they first get a look at the restaurant and bar - perhaps it's that long-lodged memory of Posh, Sporty, Scary, Ginger and Baby haring through the corridors in their Wannabe video, or more recently Batman Begins' Christian Bale doing battle with the baddies of Gotham City.
Either way, this is a building with serious history, not to mention architectural grandeur, and the food is going to have to be really very good to live up to its surroundings.
Although you can approach the restaurant through the hotel, far better to enter through the revolving doors on Euston Road where the original entrance hall and coffee room of the Midland Grand Hotel once was. Both bar and restaurant have been designed by David Collins (you'll know his work from Claridges, The Berkeley and The Wolseley) who has the perfect knack of making his restaurants look as though they've been in situ forever. The restaurant seats 120 (with four handy extra counter dining seats up at the pastry counter) while there's a private dining room for 12 as well as a Kitchen table seating 10.
So how is Marcus Wareing involved?
Perfectionist Marcus Wareing is the name behind the venture - making The Gilbert Scott his first breakaway restaurant after his eponymous place at The Berkeley Hotel. This time, he's putting his protégée Chantelle Nicholson in charge, who's been with Wareing through The Savoy Grill, Petrus and Berkeley. In the kitchens will be Oliver Wilson who's come on board from Caprice Holdings - and was most recently at Scott's.
The staff have all been given full training on the building's history, but there's one story we particularly liked. Smoked salmon supplier Brown and Forest are well known in London's high-end restaurants and are one of the suppliers for the restaurant. But it's less known that the chap who runs the company now happens to be the great-great-grandson of none other than Sir Gilbert Scott (that's a good question for a foodie pub quiz).
What can we expect on the menu?
Hot Dinners got a sneaky look at the menu, which reads really well and frankly made us pretty hungry.
There's a lot of interesting British dishes you might not be familiar with, but then, neither was the Head Chef until he came on board. 'Chantelle came up with a lot of the titles and did the research and I went and created the dishes around the titles.' he told us. 'There were a lot of things I'd never heard of until I saw the menu - soles in coffins was a new one to me.'
Soles in coffins?
That'll be lemon sole in vermouth cream, with Morecambe bay shrimps, mace, crispy potato.
Other dishes we'll have to have a go at include:
- for starters - the Mulligatawny or the Southwold Fried Sprats with Tendring Hall tomato ketchup
- for mains the Lancashire Hot Pot to share or the Dorset jugged steak
- for dessert Mrs Beeton's snow eggs with Everton toffee and burnt honey custard or perhaps the Eccles cake with cheddar cheese icecream. Or even the orange marmalade jaffa cake with Earl Grey ice cream. Or the warm chocolate in a pot with chocolate cornflakes. We like our desserts.
We were also rather taken with the idea of a side order of mini yorkshire puddings.
Very British, then.
In more ways than you'd expect. According to Chantelle, 'one of the main dishes that's stood out so far in tastings was pease pudding. People were saying they could eat that all day - but we've just got it as a side dish.
People know the name, but don't know what it is. It's split yellow peas, cooked with whole vegetables for flavour and a piece of bacon. Traditionally they'd be cooked with a boiled ham and wrapped in muslin with enough room for them to expand. They used to be eaten either hot or cold - as the nursery rhyme suggests.'
Handily if you'd like to try both, you can also order a Pease Pudding Cold cocktail in the bar first, which comes with a pea foam.
How about some snacks if I've got a train to catch?
Back in the bar, there'll be bar food available all day including British-inspired bites such as pork and sage stuffing balls and Lancashire mushroom rolls. They'll also serve up 'elevenses' and the lesser-known (or have they just invented this) 'threesies'.
And what about the drink to round it all off?
On the wine side, sommelier Mark Cesareo (previously assistant sommelier at the Berkeley) has devised a wine list ordered by grape varieties rather than origin - the whole point is accessibility. 'I really believe in English sparkling wines' he told us, 'so there'll be three we're serving by the glass, Nyetimber, Ridge View from Sussex and Camel Valley in Cornwall. We've also got lots of English ciders and beers on the list.'
When will it be open?
Booking online opens on 14 April - and the doors open on 5 May.
So are Chantelle and Oliver feeling the pressure as opening day looms closer? 'It is a great challenge - to open in a building like this and do it justice,' Oliver told us, 'I've been looking forward to it for many months now..there's always going to be a slight amount of nerves but that's only to be expected when you're doing something new for someone as high profile as Marcus.' That sentiment is echoed by Chantelle who says; 'There's a lot of hype because of Marcus so it's important we get it right from day one.'
Find out more about the Gilbert Scott
