This winter, The Cheese Bar, the restaurant with a mission to champion real British cheese, is opening a new restaurant and subterranean wine bar in the heart of central London, with the help of a crowdfunding scheme.
The Cheese Bar’s first crowdfunding campaign for their Camden Market home was a huge success, reaching the target of £100k in just 3 days, with an additional £26k pledged on top of the goal amount. Now founder Mark Carver (pictured) is launching another campaign, so cheese obsessives, who missed out the first time, have the chance to get involved and help crowdfund the central London opening.
A Crowdcube campaign will be launched on Monday 20 August with a goal of £200k - as an equity crowdfunding platform, each Crowdcube investor will receive a slice of ownership, with further rewards of everything from free meals to having The Cheese Truck attend your next event, depending on investment.
At the new Cheese Bar, guests escaping the hustle and bustle of the city can take a seat in the airy ground floor space lined with display fridges showcasing wheels and truckles of maturing cheeses.
This second permanent home will dish up a menu of Carver’s innovative plates and gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, while a basement wine bar will pour a cherry-picked selection of natural wines to pair with cheese and charcuterie plates.
The menu uses only the best British produce, which is sourced from Mathew’s favourite urban cheesemakers, including La Latteria and Gringa Dairy in Peckham, as well as further afield around the UK. Small plates include Truffled Baron Bigod; Smoked Mozzarella Sticks w/Chilli Jam; and Mayfield Gougeres, or guests can opt for larger picks such as Chicken Poutine with Crispy Sage and Blue Cheese Raclette with Salt Beef and Crispy Leeks, and even share an indulgent four cheese fondue between two.
In a nod to The Cheese Bar’s beginnings as Archie the canary yellow Cheese Truck, the restaurant will also be dishing up a selection of its classic cheese toasties, including Stilton, Bacon and Pear Chutney and Rosary Goats Cheese, Honey and Walnut.
Tucked away under the main restaurant, a candlelit basement wine bar lets guests take their pick from boards of cheese and, in keeping with Mathew’s passion for British produce, freshly sliced charcuterie from Blackhand. The 70-bottle wine list, from both old and new world vineyards, keeps a focus on unusual natural wines to complement the earthy flavours of farmhouse cheeses, such as Dinavolino Bianco and Pierre Frick, Reisling.
Founder Mathew Carver says, “There’s nowhere else in the world with a cheese scene as exciting as the UK’s at the moment, so we’re looking forward to bringing even more incredible cheese to central London. The response to our first crowdfunding campaign was unbelievable, so we’re hoping that London’s cheese fans have an appetite for more!”