After a years-long wait, brothers Josh and Paul Katz and Mattia Bianchi, the team behind Haggerston's Berber & Q and Exmouth Market's Shawarma Bar, are to open a restaurant in central London.
In March, the trio will open in Fitzrovia with Carmel, a follow-up to their hit operation of the same name that sits between Kilburn and Maida Vale. The original, launched in late 2021, will operate as usual.
“We’ve been looking to make the move to central London for a while, since before the pandemic,” Josh Katz told the Standard. “When that all happened, we took a pause in our search, kept our heads down and focussed on our neighbourhood restaurants. We are so pleased to be back in a position to test ourselves in a central location, it feels like a natural move for us.”
The new site, found just off Market Place, will open for lunch and dinner, with room inside for 95 diners a sitting. Like the original Carmel, it will serve dishes inspired by the eastern Mediterranean, starting with the likes of monkfish crudo with sheep’s yoghurt and tomatoes, before moving onto dishes including sea bream with hot honey, lemon butter, and fennel, or sweet potato gnocchi with burnt aubergine, Greek yoghurt and sage brown butter. There will be a strong focus on pasta throughout the menu.
Carmel having found critical acclaim for its flatbreads — including warm praise from the Standard's chief critic, Jimi Famurewa — these will also return, cooked on-site in a tabun oven. Toppings will include lamb prosciutto with guindilla, anchovy and chilli butter, and cod’s roe with potato, rosemary, spring onion and bottarga.
The restaurant will also offer a brunch service and, once the weather is warmer, a terrace that seats 38.
Speaking to the Standard about the move, Katz said: “I’ve always loved Fitzrovia as an area, it has its own neighbourhood feel, and doesn’t feel quite as hectic as some other areas of the West End.
“Market Place is just moments away from the rush of Oxford Street, but has a real calmness to it. We feel that we have an opportunity here to bring something new to the area, and put our own mark down with Carmel. It is a nice big site too, with a large ground floor dining room - something harder for us to find in somewhere like Soho, this means we can experiment with a bigger, bolder menu, and we can’t wait!”
Bianchi will sort the wine, which will mostly be sourced from low-intervention producers from across the globe, though more established older vintages will be offered too. The list will offer larger formats too, including jeroboams.
“Mattia has done what he does best and will create an incredible wine list, highlighting some of The Med’s most exciting, lesser-known wine producers,” said Katz of the list.
