Full details have been revealed of the new venture which is set to take over from one of Wales’ most famous restaurants.
Alium, which is owned by Cardiff-born chef Antonio Simone, will open on the former site of Hang Fire Southern Kitchen in mid-March, and it looks to be one of the hottest new restaurants in south Wales this year.
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The new restaurant will serve the same flavour-packed style of cooking for which Antonio has built up a big reputation at the Humble Onion, his original restaurant in Dinas Powys, which opened in 2017.
Based on the success of the Humble Onion, Antonio feels it’s time to open a second, bigger restaurant so he can reach a wider audience. The restaurant’s name Alium, is a play on two Latin words, alium, meaning another, and allium, meaning the family of species to which onions belong.
"We're just so limited in the Humble Onion for numbers, we're turning people away on a weekly basis. So it just makes sense really and it's a nice opportunity with a place in Barry for people to see what we're about because not everyone will travel all the way to Dinas,” said Antonio.
"I just want it to be a time for us to shine really. Hopefully people can appreciate what we are if we're in a bigger venue. People appreciate my food now, but it doesn't feel appreciated enough in my eyes in respect to some of the places I go to and think ‘well that was average'.”
The new location in Barry's Victorian Pumphouse building was an obvious choice for Antonio. He lives around the corner from the restaurant and his parents used to own an Italian restaurant on the Knap.
"It's up and coming - there's a lot of food offerings with the Shed and the Goodsheds. I thought it would be good to add another dimension to that,” said Antonio.
Having found a winning formula at the Humble Onion, Antonio plans to serve the same style of cooking at Alium.
"I cook what I love so we're gonna stick to what we know. For me it's all about the produce. I know that some people say they use good produce but they say it and then they don't.
"So we'll stick to our guns using good produce, treated with respect. It's still very much our humble cooking with slow-cooked meats and then we've added an extra dimension with aged steaks from Oriel Jones.
"It is painstaking slow cooking ox cheeks and pigs heads and making our own stocks. But that's the sort of thing people mention when they come to us. They say everything tastes good and the sauces are great. And we're just going to carry that over to Barry."
It’s not only locally-sourced beef from Oriel Jones which will appear on the menu. Matthew Jones Ceramics, based in Barry’s Goodsheds, are supplying the crockery and Porlock Oysters, from just over the Bristol Channel, will be served with three types of garnish.
“You can get your binoculars and literally see from Barry across to Porlock,” said Antonio.
Dishes you can expect to find on Alium’s launch menu include lamb shoulder croquettes with a curry aioli; crispy chicken with peanut butter and pickled chilli; and pig’s head fritter with pickled apple and sriracha mayonnaise.
Another feature will be dishes cooked over a massive charcoal parrilla grill, called Lemmy, which was a fixture during the restaurant’s days as Hang Fire.
"We're going to add a lot of flavour using Lemmy, especially the steaks and we're going to be cooking vegetables on the embers,” said Antonio.
Antonio is keenly aware that he’s taking over from one of the most celebrated restaurants in Wales and he hopes that he does the building justice.
Hang Fire Southern Kitchen, which was owned by Samantha Evans and Shauna Guinn, was a previous winner of Observer Food Monthly’s Best Restaurant in the UK and was regularly booked up for months in advance.
"Honestly, it's a big weight on my shoulders and they're big shoes to fill. I met Sam and Shauna and said ‘I just want to say thank you for the memories. It's an iconic building in Wales and I just hope I do you guys proud and carry on the flame'.”
The refurbishment at Alium is fully underway and its new look, with liquid copper Venetian plastering and exposed brickwork, will be in-keeping with the industrial heritage of the Pumphouse and Barry Docks.
"We're gonna stay true to the building. It holds so much history and I think it would be a tragic thing to plasterboard the walls.”
With a target opening date of mid-March, Antonio plans to temporarily close the Humble Onion for a couple of months so he can focus on getting his new restaurant off the ground.
"There's no point in trying to get a business like this up and running and do it badly for the sake of losing a few months [at the Humble Onion].
“It's never been about the money anyway to be honest and I'm not greedy. It's taken five years to build the reputation we've got and it can be diminished in a week."
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