High end foodservice provider Searcys, is to relaunch its restaurant at the Barbican Centre as a new brasserie and bar.
Gin Joint will be an 88-cover venue replacing Searcys’ previous restaurant at the Centre on level two of the arts venue. The site aims to have the biggest selections of gin in the capital, offering more than 40 London dry gins, including the chilled Brokers gin on tap- making it the first site in London to offer this.
The restaurant will serve classic British dish for both lunch and dinner. Created by executive chef Oliver Tobias, formerly of the Royal Opera House and Maze, the menu includes Gressingham duck with scallop and juniper; whole lobster with courgette, lemon and borage; plum crumble with star anise and orange custard; and the Beefeater Gin and tonic granité. As well as the à la carte choice, a pre-theatre menu will be offered, from £16 for two courses or £20 for three.
The restaurant will also run its own Gin Club, offering monthly “Master Distiller Evenings” of tastings and a gin-influenced dinner, while customers will also be able to try any of the menu’s gins for the price of a regular house brand between 7pm-9pm.
Searcys has been working with the Barbican Centre since 1991 and now works alongside Compass Group who operate the Barbican’s Foodhall, the Barbican Lounge and the Green Lounge staff restaurant. Compass won the £14m seven-year deal in 2010 taking over from long-term incumbent Elior, who held the contract at Searcys for 15 years.
Searcys will open Gin Joint on September 9.