In just five short years, Brat has made more of an impact on the British culinary scene than most. Popularising turbot and making the entire country swoon for Basque cheesecake, the Redchurch Street restaurant Tomos Parry created with the team behind Kiln and Smoking Goat still somehow feels exciting and dynamic.
Nevertheless, the gang is ready for a new challenge, this time in Soho. Arriving on Beak Street in July, Mountain will be over two-floors. Downstairs visitors can sip vermouth, listen to records and watch the wood-fire bakers and pastry chefs at work. Upstairs they can dine on Parry and head chef Josean Balotin’s fare, influenced by the unique cooking traditions of mountainous regions close to the sea, such as northern Spain, the Balearics and Anglesey, Parry’s birthplace off the north coast of Wales.
Taking inspiration from taverna and vineyard cooking, ‘there’ll be big sharing dishes and braises that might take a day to make, like lovely stews,’ says Parry. He’s also excited to serve ‘marketplace dishes made with raw fish and clams’, the open-fire cooking the team honed at Brat and, for the first time, food cooked on a plancha, which adds a layer of caramelisation. ‘It’s exciting because we’ll have a different flavour profile to the Brat dishes,’ he says.
Drawing from small UK suppliers, many based in Pembrokeshire, stars of the show include ragu-like slow-braised tripe, a delicate spider crab omelette, lobster caldereta (a tomato-based stew), torrija (a nutty Catalan French toast) and a caramelised wood-fired soufflé. Plus, the sobrasada is a must. The chorizo-style sausage made exclusively for the restaurant in Mallorca, where its creator Lewis grows his own chillies and makes his own paprika — it might just be the best Spanish export since Enrique Iglesias.
