The team behind cocktail bar Evans & Peel Detective Agency (pictured) in west London are to open a new bar and restaurant in Farringdon on the edge of the City.
With the main restaurant and bar on the ground floor, Kench & Bibesy will build on the Prohibition-inspired style of Evans & Peel in Earls Court by having “theatre and fun” with the basement bar.
While the owners are remaining tight-lipped about their plans for this underground space, they say the bar will “be taking our cocktails to the next level” and will have an unusual entrance.
Evans & Peel, which opened in summer last year, is entered through an unassuming door on a side street that leads down to a small office modelled on a 1930s film noir detective agency. Pulling a book off a shelf opens a door into the candlelit classic American-style bar hidden behind.
Both bars are headed by Chris Peel who has been in the bar industry for over 10 years after developing and selling the three-strong Monk bar group in the north of England.
Kench & Bibesy will be open for lunch and dinner, Monday to Saturday. During the day, it will provide eat-in or take-away options, delivering a choice of three sandwiches comprising seasonal British ingredients alongside British roasted coffee and microbrewery beers.
By night, the kitchen will produce a concise, ever-changing menu of small plates focusing on British ingredients, bold flavours and seasonality.
The ground-floor bar will be totally independent, with no “sponsorship obligations”, serving a concise menu of “technical” cocktails, focusing on crisp, bold flavours.
Drinks techniques will include sous vide ageing, flavour impregnations with wood chips for in-house infusions and processes used by vintners such as adding tannins and essence to cocktails.
It also promises an impressive wine and champagne menu.
The Art Deco building, which originally supplied meat machinery to nearby Smithfield market, has been stripped back to its original state.
Details include furniture and artefacts sourced from salvage yards, derelict hospitals and schools across the UK. The bar features mahogany parquet from an old Catholic grammar school, staff tables from a disused hospital and concrete lights made from the waste produced from building sites across London.
“These features, together with factory lights and traditional chalk board menus, result in a relaxed and industrial space, suitable for both casual lunches and longer informal dinner and drinks,” Chris said.
The venue, in the former premises of Apium Noodle Bar in Long Lane, is due to open on November 20.
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