This week, self-taught butcher Charlie Carroll opens the Flat Iron Workshop at the Arcade Food Theatre, a unique all-day food and drink concept bringing London’s top restaurants together under one roof at the landmark Centre Point building.
For the very first time, Flat Iron will have an entirely new menu, only to be found at the Workshop.
Having built a cult following for their flat iron steak since they opened in 2012, Carroll and the team are committed to serving the best beef they can get their hands on. In 2018 Fred Smith returned to Flat Iron as Head of Beef, having worked with Charlie to fine-tune the original menu back in 2012.
For the Workshop, Carroll and Smith have been busy experimenting with unusual cuts, cooking methods and amazing beef from small artisan producers across the country including their own herd of cattle in Yorkshire.
Carroll said, “On one of our many visits to Warren’s in Cornwall, I noticed that the point end of the featherblade of the best animals was extremely marbled and tender. So we decided to create a new cut that was born of these exceptional featherblade tips.
'They have all the beef flavour of Cornish pasture raised native breed cattle, but with this explosive fattiness that we usually associate with higher grades of Japanese Wagyu. At the moment this is our favourite cut of beef so we’re really excited to serve it at Arcade.”
Cooked over a bespoke holm oak fired grill, the menu stays true to Carroll’s determination to do a few things well and includes the Steak & Yorkshire (pictured), a proper Yorkshire pudding cooked with beef dripping, stacked with charcoal grilled steak, pickled Tropea onions, fresh horseradish and English mustard mayo.
Having created a new cut especially for Arcade, the Charcoal Grilled Featherblade tip is a very rare and prized specialist cut, sourced here from hand selected Cornish native breed cattle then poached in butter before being grilled over Holm Oak Charcoal. Sides will include Wagyu Dripping Fries, a Workshop Salad, and sauces of Truffled Cep & Peppercorn Cream and Brown Butter Hollandaise.
Smith added, “Its really impressive that little has changed on the Flat Iron menu since the very beginning, other than Charlie’s quest to hone everything from the supply chain to the chips (bearing in mind it took batch 128 to perfect them).
'Charlie and I have come a long way since our original menu testing above the pub in East London but it’s been a lot of fun reverting back to the early days. Recently, we have been experimenting with new cuts and how the breed, rearing and age combine to make even tastier beef and then how we can draw out the best flavour.”