Self-taught butcher, Charlie Carroll is set to bring Flat Iron to Kings Cross on Caledonian Road in October, which will be the sixth site for the chain.
Originally a pop-up in the summer of 2012, Flat Iron’s unwavering mind set of doing a small number of things really well has since garnered a cult following. Founder Charlie’s ‘learn to do it yourself’ approach continues to drive their pursuit of making great steak available to everyone.
The ‘flat iron’ steak which Carroll’s restaurants specialise in is taken from the often underused feather blade of the animal. Flat Iron Kings Cross will also serve more specialist cuts, including the underblade fillet, tri tip and rump cap from Flat Iron’s own Yorkshire herd of rare and native breed cattle.
Carroll, who still loves to break down whole sides of beef at his butchers block, works with third generation beef farmer, Charles Ashbridge, to source well finished examples of the best native breeds. These whole animals are then butchered on-site in the Covent Garden restaurant.
Their beef dripping chips, whose final recipe was found at batch #128, will be joined by a Flat Iron first in the form of Wagyu Fries, cooked in wagyu fat, prized for its sweet nutty flavour, whilst made to order ice-cream will be available for the first time at Flat Iron.
A reflection of Charlie’s obsession with perfectionism, the ice-cream will be created from scratch at the central ice-cream bar; fresh custard will be poured onto a supercooled slab, then quickly chopped with paddles to create a creamy, smooth scoop, served instantly for the smoothest ice cream possible.
Each ice-cream can be customised with a host of toppings, from Madagascan vanilla Chantilly cream to Italian wild Amarena cherry syrup, or bean to bar Congelese Cru Virunga chocolate.
Behind the bar, brand new DIY Bloody Mary boxes can be ordered to the table, each packed with bottles of house-made chestnut smoked vodka, Beef Tea made from dry aged shin from the Flat Iron herd, freshly grated horseradish root, and classic Bloody Mary spices to be mixed into tomato juice for the ultimate pick me up.
Carroll said, ‘Kings Cross is a really exciting move for us, and we’ve been tirelessly working on the new menu additions too. We test everything so intensely that it takes a lot of work even to add some new chips to our line-up, but that’s because we’re absolutely obsessed with quality and flavours.
'Our mindset hasn’t wavered much since we started as a pop-up; great steak for everyone, unparalleled taste and do a small number of things really well, and we’re really happy to be bringing this to Kings Cross.'