Chef Patrick Powell to open King's Cross restaurant

Restaurateur and hotelier Harry Handelsman (Chiltern Firehouse, Allegra, Booking Office 1869) will open The Midland Grand Dining Room in King's Cross next month, in collaboration with chef Patrick Powell (who will continue to oversee Allegra).

Alongside the restaurant will be the Gothic Bar, as well as a private dining room, Chef’s Table experience and an expansive outdoor terrace. 

Having worked at the likes of L’Ecrivain (Dublin), Cutler & Co (Melbourne) and Wild Honey (London), Powell spent four years at Chiltern Firehouse as head chef before being hand-picked by Handelsman to open Allegra at The Stratford hotel. 

Menus will be inspired by French cuisine, with dishes changing regularly. Available alongside the à la carte offering will be a set lunch menu.

Signature dishes will include crab and elderflower pain perdu; chicken liver parfait with a truffle and Madeira jelly; and grand marnier soufflé. These will sit alongside broader, more familiar menu items such as salad of English tomatoes, pesto rouge, pickled shallots and soft herbs; wild mushroom on toast with parsley and garlic, Welsh lamb with pommes Anna, ratatouille and whipped aubergine; and grilled Dover sole and Epping honey madeleines. 

Elsewhere on the team Emma Underwood will be general manager, assisted by Tebeho Tsekelo. Jack Porter will be bar manager, while Charlie Crote will be head chef, joined in the kitchen by Arran Schaffer as head pastry chef. 

The wine offering will comprise a predominantly old world list, and there will also be a concise cocktail list created specifically for the restaurant, overseen by Porter, which will place an emphasis on complementing Powell’s culinary direction. An example of this will be the Le Pain cocktail – a digestif taking direct inspiration from Powell’s grandmother's soda bread, including Soda bread mix, Jameson, Guinness liquor, black walnut bitter and sweet vermouth. 

The dining room will seat 86 people across a mix of bespoke tables, banquettes and its very own bar.

Patrick Powell says of the upcoming launch: "I first walked past the building within days of moving to London and was immediately in awe of it.  So to now be opening a restaurant within it just over ten years later feels like an extraordinary privilege. The layers of history that permeate the restaurant and adjoining bar create this extraordinary sense of excitement, and thanks to Harry, I can't wait to be a part of its next chapter."

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