Every few months, a new opening gets London’s restaurant scene humming with excitement. Right now, that opening is more than just a restaurant – it’s a bar and arts space, too. Meet Outcrop, a new pop-up terrace adjoining 180 The Strand.
Open for three short months (with whispered plans to extend) during London’s reliably mediocre-weathered summer, Outcrop comes from a mismatch of hospitality brains, including the team behind Luca, Secret Cinema and AngloThai.
Together they have created a space that fuses art, food, music and nature, with lush greenery dripping from every angle. While the first phase of Outcrop is on a limited time frame, the long-term goal is to help shift urban perceptions of sustainability and connect city dwellers with countryside regeneration projects.
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Outcrop’s restaurant comes courtesy of AngloThai’s John Chantarasak, who has created a menu of charcoal fire-cooked, Thai-inspired dishes, using ingredients local to the UK. In line with the project’s sustainability ambitions, Chantarasak and team are promoting whole-animal cooking and preservation methods to reduce waste.
Curating the wine list is Chantarasak’s partner (both business and personal), Desiree, who offers a selection of low-intervention European labels, while bar manager Rob Simpson (previously of The Clove Club and Gymkhana) has created an inventive cocktail menu.
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Simpson has been careful to prioritize working with conscious spirit producers. The resulting cocktail lineup is centered around British ingredients and includes the likes of signature negroni made using leftover tomatoes from the kitchen and a gin martini with homemade herb vermouth.
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Throughout the rest of the residency, guests can enjoy a rotating lineup of musical talents, inspired by the animal migrations of the natural world. This includes South African musician Esa Williams, whose six-hour set follows the swallow’s journey from South Africa to the UK; John Gomez, who will mimic the Manx Shearwater which travels from Patagonia to the UK each year; and a club night from LOCAL, where guests will follow the Humpback Whale’s pilgrimage from the UK to the Caribbean.
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For Outcrop’s music and arts section, the team has called upon several emerging and established creators. Throughout the initial three-month pop-up, a larger-than-life visual installation by art collective Marshmallow Laser Feast takes the form of a giant Ceiba Pentandra tree from the Colombian Amazon. Transporting guests out of central London, the projection is intended to encourage visitors to ponder our place within the wider natural world.
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