A new wine bar and restaurant named after a classic song has opened in a former Islington pub - next door to a speciality coffee shop.
Alex Young and George de Vos have launched their inaugural project, Goodbye Horses, together with a coffee shop, Day Trip, on the corner of Halliford Street and Elizabeth Avenue.
Named after a song by Q Lazzarus that featured in the 1991 film Silence of the Lamps, the De Beauvoir venue marries Japanese folk art and English arts and crafts in a restored Victorian pub that has been overhauled by Swiss architect Leopold Banchini.
Design features include a 10m timber bar made from a single oak tree which acts as a bar, counter, kitchen bench and dining table.
The brick walls of the former Oxford Arms, which dates back to 1850, are coated with limewash and roughcast, the ceiling is made from cork and the earthen floor uses a mix of raw clay and straw.
Artist Lucy Stein was commissioned to hand-paint murals inspired by British folklore and mythology throughout the space. The themes also feature on the rice paper canvas light fixture with floor-to-ceiling hessian curtains lining the brick walls.
Hackney-born head chef Jack Coggins, who has previously worked at Papi, Planque, The Baring and Hot 4 U, brings seasonality, sustainability, creativity and fun to a menu of sharing plates.
Weekly changing dishes include sardines on milk bread, egg mayonnaise, a cheese and chutney toastie, followed by larger plates of raw beef, chilli and mushrooms, Dorset clams and courgettes, and oxtail ragout broken rice.
Puddings range from hazelnut affogato and bread treacle ice cream, to puffed rice granola and blackberries.
Wine director Nathalie Nelles, previously of Noble Fine Liquor and Wright’s Wines, has curated a wine list that includes a range of natural wine producers with French, Italian, and Catalonian bottles stored in the 1,600sq ft cellar around the corner from the wine bar.
The vaulted room will be open to guests later in the year.
Food and wine are served to a backdrop of music from vinyl albums, handpicked daily from Goodbye Horses’ library of more than 4,000 records.
Day Trip is a coffee shop celebrating the art of pour-over coffee. Helmed by barista and head of coffee Douglas Conde, it offers a small seated bar with a vista into the wine bar and a garden with a five-metre stone bench alcoves to sit in, and an oasis of trees and plants.
An artisanal ice cream shop, The Dreamery, will open later in the month serving a selection of unique ice cream flavours made in-house by Jack Coggins.
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