Tomos Parry, formerly of Kitty Fisher’s, will open his debut restaurant, Brat, on Redchurch Street in London's Shoreditch, this Spring.
Originally a colloquial term for ‘Turbot’, Brat draws on Parry’s Welsh heritage and influence from the Basque region of Northern Spain, with a menu favouring seasonal British produce, cooked on an open fire wood grill.
Having visited Getaria, a coastal town in the Basque country, well known for its barbecues, Parry was inspired by the relaxed, intuitive and direct approach to cooking. From his time at Climpson’s Arch in Hackney and subsequently when opening Kitty Fisher’s in Mayfair, Parry has developed an understanding of the relationship between good food and fire.
Parry said, “Brat will focus on a particularly gentle and simple style of fire cooking recognisable from Getaria, which generally means buy well and don’t ruin it. Since leaving Kitty’s, I’ve been working closely with farmers and fisherman to create a menu which is structured around native ingredients at the peak of their season.”
The menu begins with quick dishes including Carmarthen Ham; Fresh cheese; Grilled baby peas and wood fire grilled breads, made using organic native heritage grain flour, sourced from one of the few remaining stoneground flour mills in Britain.
This will be followed with more robust flavours such as Cedar Wood Sea trout with Jersey cream and river herbs; Slow grilled little Red Mullet; Turbot, lightly seasoned; wild mussel and cockle soup and Offal hot pot with laverbread and potatoes, loosely based on the Welsh national dish of Cawl.
The kitchen will work closely with farms such as Maerdy farm in South Wales to source and select for the restaurant, with one such dish using aged badger face welsh mountain ewes, which have been fattened on their endless grass hills, with the extra fat covering intensifying the flavour.
Parry will be collaborating on the wine list with Keeling Andrew & Co, the new wine import company set up by the founders of Noble Rot. They will be focusing on an approachable list, with a few interesting wines from old cellars alongside a list of sherry’s they are beginning to bring into the country.
Guests will access the first-floor restaurant through an unassuming entrance. The original 1930s stairwell will lead guests upstairs into the dining room, which retains many original features including art deco wood panelling and large steel frame windows, flooding the room with natural light. An open kitchen with the wood ovens sits at the heart of the room, surrounded by a counter bar with high stools for guests to dine.
Parry concluded, “For me, the simple pleasure of eating well is what Brat is all about. It’s a place I would want to eat - whether that be one dish with a glass of wine at lunch or settling in at the counter for a few hours.”