You must have heard of Noisy Oyster, the new, modern seafood bistro that, since launching in London's East End on June 25, has been making the rounds on the Instagram and TikTok feeds of your coolest friends — and most envied contenders. When I visit the restaurant, situated just a seven-minute walk from the graffitied warehouses of Shoreditch High Street within the sleek Norton Folgate development, on a summery Wednesday evening, a group of twenty-somethings is celebrating the end of the workday on its sun-soaked terrace, cigarette in hand, a Martini in the other. It captures its vibe.
In setting it up, founders Madina Kazhimova and Anna Dolgushina, who met in Saint Petersburg in 2013 and have since conceived well-received hospitality concepts between the Russian capital and London (they are the duo behind Soho's atmospheric Mediterranean, Firebird), strived to rejuvenate this specific restaurant genre. To do so, the two entrusted New York and Paris-based Harry Nuriev, the founding creative director of interior architecture practice and cultural platform Crosby Studios, having previously come across a suggestive pop-up he had imagined for Luca Pronzato's nomadic culinary collective, WE ARE ONA.
