Luca founders Johnny Smith and Daniel Willis, along with Tom Allott, Andrea Moccia and Sabrina Goreeba from Secret Cinema, are teaming up for the venture
Not just a place to grab a bite to eat and admire some art, Outcrop is designed to be an oasis in the heart of the city, connecting people to the natural world using food, drink and culture. AngloThai’s John Chantarasak will be taking charge of the food, blending Thai flavours with seasonal British veg (including UK-grown ginger, chillies, lemongrass and Thai basil), native breed meat and line-caught fish, and cooking it all over charcoal. His menu includes the likes of:
- root vegetable som tam with tamarind & London honey
- salt-baked beetroot with scallop roe chilli jam & wild garlic
- Wye Valley asparagus & sunflower seed satay
- coconut smoked turbot bone broth
- skate wing jungle curry
- Thai tea burnt cream
Desiree Chantarasak of AngloThai is curating the wine list, selecting low-intervention European wines to be served on tap. Rob Simpson (ex-The Clove Club and Gymkhana) is taking care of the cocktails, with UK ingredients and spirits featuring heavily, with serves like the British Margarita (with barley eau de vie, London honey & gooseberry) and the Outcrop Martini (with London dry gin & homemade herb garden vermouth).
On the art side, Outcrop’s central piece will come from leading art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast. Titled Sanctuary of the Unseen Forest, the large-scale installation pairs a video of a giant Ceiba Pentandra tree from the Colombian Amazon with a lowly reverberating soundtrack to immerse visitors in a moment of reflection.
The restaurant will also feature an interdisciplinary performance piece from DJ Esa Willians and artist Chisara Agor that explores the migration of swallows from South Africa to the UK and the African diaspora, and a musical collage from Walls’ Sam Willis that dives into music’s relationship to nature, with the likes of John Gomez, Joel Martin and Daniel John Willis & Mr Pedro also on the music programme.
Outcrop will begin with a three-month run at 180 The Strand, with longer-term plans to link buildings in cities with regeneration projects in the countryside, to help urban communities increase biodiversity in rural areas, so watch this space.
Stay in the loop…
Sign up to our drops & get us in your inbox.
We’ll be in your inbox every Wednesday at 11:30am.
Put the kettle on!
Opens Fri 7th July 2023
1 Surrey St, London, WC2R 2ND
outcrop.social