2012. Big year for London. The Olympics. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. (It’s a thing.) And more importantly, the opening of the city’s first La Esquina. Behold, London’s five most important restaurant openings of the year. Consider it a culinary Olympiad...
When a Brit teams up with a crew of Southerners to convert his BBQ food truck into a full-blown restaurant, you’ve got the recipe for a fantastic buddy sitcom. Also: for smoked brisket, pulled pork and deep-fried pickled shiitake. We didn’t say it wouldn’t get weird.
The Wapping Project. Perhaps you’re familiar—the farm-fresh cuts of meat, the in-house butchery, the home in a former hydraulic power station. Well, the guy behind it is unveiling a new place, serving up suckling pigs on a menu that changes daily. (Hint: keep your Tuesdays open if you’re into beef ribs.)
Dolls within dolls. Shelves lined with Dostoyevsky. Models sipping champagne. But enough about Prokhorov’s New Year’s Eve party, let’s talk Mari Vanna. Those aforementioned touches are unique to the new outpost of NYC’s notorious den of Russian-style indulgence. Fear not: the sturgeon black caviar still pairs well with beet-infused vodka.
So La Esquina is setting up shop on the footsteps of the Cambridge Hotel. And like its NYC cousin, the London version’s got a semisecret downstairs—in this case, a 24-hour bar hidden below the brasserie. For when your nights out require a 5am michelada.
Come for the brunch of champions (duck-stuffed shepherd’s pie with Bloody Marys), stay for the art. There’s a full-on gallery in Keith McNally’s new London location, housed in the old Theatre Museum. Here’s hoping a Minetta Tavern outpost isn’t far behind...
