Rondo set to open at The Hoxton, Holborn

Rondo, a new restaurant and wine bar at The Hoxton, Holborn, is set to open officially on Tuesday 1 September, created in collaboration with William Lander who co-owns of Quality Chop House, Portland and Clipstone.

Lander has helped oversee the concept and put together a wine list featuring some of Europe’s most exciting winemakers.

Rondo will be serving ‘serious’ food and drink in a friendly, neighbourhood restaurant setting.

Chris Gillard – previously at St John for 15 years – will head up the kitchen, serving seasonal produce and ‘unsung heroes’ in pared-back, punchy dishes.

Among the snack selection are pickles, pork and duck rillettes and a classic terrine – all made in-house by Gillard – as well as crisp aubergine tempura with a harissa dipping sauce and a bone marrow toastie.

Starters include a summer salad of heritage tomatoes, carrots and radish; a smoked mackerel served on the bone with beetroot and horseradish; brown shrimp, cucumber, fennel and cucumber; and a crispy pig’s cheek salad with roast shallots and watercress.

Working closely with independent suppliers such as Ben’s Fish in Mersea Island and Swaledale Foods in Yorkshire, dishes will change depending on season and availability.

Main courses include grey mullet cooked on the charcoal grill and served with tomato, fennel and aioli; a Tamworth pork chop with bobby beans and chutney; and roast Sutton Hoo chicken with charred carrots, caramelised onions and chorizo.

For dessert, guests can choose from an apricot and almond tart, a Pump Street chocolate mousse cake with fresh cherries, a strawberry sherry trifle and British cheeses from Neal’s Yard.

The wine selection

A huge wine wall at the end of the restaurant is the centrepiece of the room, with bottles stacked high on wooden shelves, while chrome taps dispense Rondo’s house wines from kegs.

Refillable bottles are available to purchase these house wines to take away, with subsequent refills at under £20 a bottle.

To mark the restaurant’s launch, there are ten special wine subscriptions available, costing £1,200 each, and the holder of one of these limited-edition bottles will be entitled to a wine refill every day for a year.

“Firstly, it’s a great pleasure to have helped bring Rondo to life – we have tried to create exactly the type of restaurant we ourselves love going to,” says Lander.

“It’s also very nice to be reunited with Chris Gillard, who was head chef at St John in 2003 when I was an 18-year-old barman there trying to figure out what the hell was going on!

“At Rondo we aim to celebrate wine in all its manifest complexity rather than narrow in on one particular style or region.

“Our focus, therefore, is on the winemaker rather than the type of wine they happen to make.”

Rondo is opening as part of a substantial redesign of the ground floor at The Hoxton, Holborn, which has been led by Ennismore Design Studio.

The lobby has been extended on both sides to create more space, and there’s a new coffee bar, lighting, furniture, and artworks contributing to a refreshed look and feel for the hotel.

Rondo itself has terracotta floor tiles, cotton light shades, soft banquettes along one wall and classic wooden bistro tables and chairs in the centre of the room.

There are also a handful of stools up at the wine wall.