The duo behind Texture, the Michelin-starred restaurant in London’s Portman Square, are to open a sister restaurant in early June.
Xavier Rousset and business partner Agnar Sverrisson searched for a year to find the site for their latest venture, 28º-50º.
Named after the latitudes between which vines are generally grown, the ‘wine workshop and kitchen’ off Fleet Street in the City of London will have an ever-changing wine list.
‘We decided to call it a wine workshop because ‘wine bar’ sounds outdated’, Rousset told decanter.com.
The basic wine list will be made up of 15 whites and 15 reds served by the glass and bottle.
‘All of the wines on the basic list will be under £50. I feel strongly about offering good value. Most will be one-offs, so the list will be constantly changing’.
Rousset has also devised a ‘collections’ list of high end wines sourced from private cellars, priced with ‘the smallest mark up possible’.
‘I can’t afford to do that at Texture, so found a way round it by opening a new place’.
Rousset, a Master Sommelier, will be based at the restaurant, with Sverrisson continuing as chef patron at Texture.
‘If you want to do something properly, you have to have your heart in it 100%. I want to be in the thick of it, not advising from a distance’, Rousset said.
The new 60-seater restaurant will be headed up by Paul Walsh, previously sous chef at Gordon Ramsay’s three Michelin-starred Royal Hospital Road.
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Written by Lucy Shaw in Ribera del Duero
