SMOKESTAK founder to open Greek restaurant
Restaurateur David Carter is to open a new Greek restaurant in London's Borough Market in spring.
The SMOKESTAK founder and co-founder of Manteca is working on his new concept, OMA, drawing its name from the Greek word for 'raw'. The restaurant, located just off Bedale Street, will feature a crudo bar and open plan, live-fire kitchen. A U-shaped bar will curve out onto a terrace that looks out over the market below, with heaters offering warmth throughout the year for its 60-seat capacity.
A raw bar will house a display of dayboat fish, shellfish and molluscs, providing a space where guests can watch chefs prepare plates of raw and cured crudo, ceviche and tartare.
Beyond the bar will lie a central hearth upon which dry-aged meat, Cornish fish and vegetables are skewered, grilled or cooked under an open wood fire. Heartier dishes of youvetsi (orzo-based hot pots) will also be cooked in traditional pottery sourced from Crete.
Chefs Nick Molyviatis and Jorge Paredes, former head chef of Kiln and executive chef of Sabor respectively, will lead the kitchen alongside Carter. The menu will begin with sharing plates such as hung sheep's yoghurt with a salt cod XO sauce; and a hummus masabacha with tahini and green zhoug. Wood-fired breads made in the basement bakery include açma, malawah and laffa flatbreads.
The daily changing selection from the raw bar might include gilthead bream; jalapeño aguachile and datterini tomato; or yellowfin tuna with clementine and aged soy. Classics include Santorini fava with capers and a soft-boiled egg; and Greek salata using carob rusks, tomatoes and mizithra cheese. Reimagined Agean dishes such as harissa-grilled prawns with cucumber and mint tzatziki; and brown crab borek, will also be offered.
On the fire, butterflied or slow-grilled red mullet will be served with red miso butter, while skewered Cornish squid will be brushed with garlic and za'atar oil and finished with a dusting of sumac. From OMA's whole animal butchery, lamb shoulder will be cooked over flageolet beans with a sharp green herb sauce.
Simple desserts will round off the menu, including olive oil ice cream with fennel pollen and a generous glug of Cretan olive oil, or rizogalo rice purring with balsamic black figs.
The restaurant's wine list will be curated by Emily Acha Derrington, with Alessandra Tasca leading OMA's in-house wine team. The 400-bin wine list will reflect the minerality and salinity of the menu's coastal influences, textures and flavour profiles.
"OMA represents everything I love about restaurants – it offers a dining experience in its most intentional conception," says Carter. "From the design of the food to the style of service and aesthetic finishes, every part of OMA has been considered. It encapsulates and celebrates the raw beauty, natural landscapes and warmth of the places that have inspired it."
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