Picture perfect: Howard’s opening will focus on relaxed pasta dishes
(Picture: Andrew Hayes Watkins)Michelin-starred chef and restaurateur Phil Howard is to take his lockdown delivery service permanent, as he opens a new pasta restaurant, Otto, in the centre of town this winter.
Not to be confused with one of London’s finest restaurants — Otto’s on the Grey’s Inn Road, named for the great Otto Tepasse — Howard’s new bar will open in early November next to St James’s church on Piccadilly, just off Piccadilly Circus. Louis Korovilas said to be “at the helm” in the kitchen. Korovilas is a busy chef; he made his name with the silk handkerchiefs at Bancone, moved on to Tavolino by Tower Bridge — reviews were decidedly mixed — before moving up to Islington for Noci.
Otto began as a London-only pasta delivery service launched towards the end of the third lockdown. It makes for a curious addition to Howard’s portfolio; the chef is best known for Elystan Street, Kitchen W8 and the more recently opened Church Road. All are considered to do fine-dining in varying degrees.
Dishes at Otto will include bucatini with an autumn vegetable ragout, mushrooms and chestnuts; squid ink spaghetti in a sauce of sardines, garlic, sweet peppers and tomato; and pappardelle with a slow-cooked shin of beef, oxtail and red wine. Most dishes will be around £9-13.
Though the project seems to be somewhat casual, its ambitions appear not to be, as it will seat 74 and is in a tourist hotspot.
Howard said of the launch: “It would be fair to say that I have spent my career to date cooking a certain kind of ingredient at a certain kind of price point. I’ve loved it all, and continue to do so, but it is exciting however to have a project that can be delivered without compromise, at a price point that is wholly accessible to all.
“The fact that pasta is the medium is the icing on the cake and with the fantastic team we have in place the goal is simple — to bring pleasure to fellow Londoners by sharing authentic pasta dishes in a relaxed fun environment.”
