A shabby back street in London’s Bethnal Green might not have been the most obvious choice for a French-inspired restaurant and chic cocktail bar, but 20 years after restaurateurs David Waddington and Pablo Flack launched Bistrotheque on the first floor of an early 20th-century industrial warehouse of brick, concrete and steel, the party is still going strong – more so now with the opening of their latest project, The Cockatoo, on the ground floor.
The Cockatoo by Bistrotheque, London
The ground-floor space, legendary for its drag cabaret shows, has been transformed by London-based studio Nice Projects into a standalone restaurant and performance area that can be reconfigured in a flash to cater for private events and dinners. The plan is also to open up the 105 sq m space for dance parties with live performers and DJs drawn from a predominantly queer cabaret scene, such as Bistroteque-favourites Jonny Woo and Dan Wye, aka Séayoncé.
Given a brief to create a flexible layout, Nice Projects’ Sacha Leong and Simone McEwan developed a modular banquette system on lockable wheels, which they paired with green mohair velvet and translucent polyester grating for the banquettes. Extant columns and lit fringe capitals are clad in mirror mosaic, the shimmering confection framed by a sassy fringe ceiling curtain, the latter made of 250m of fringe threads painstakingly zipped to metal grating.
The result is a fresh space that nevertheless cleaves close to its antecedents. As Leong and McEwan point out, ‘Bistrotheque is an east London institution that is now 20 years old. It’s had many successful iterations in the past, so it’s a special space for the creative community.’
Meanwhile, The Cockatoo’s kitchen is headed by Bistrotheque’s head chef Blaine Duffy, whose Mexican-inspired menu features the likes of grilled steak paired with ancho chilli butter, spring onions and lime, and a refreshing salad of grilled jicama, radish, corn and citrus. Traditionalists may prefer to show up on a Sunday for the classic roast and Yorkshire pudding.
The Cockatoo by Bistrotheque is located at 23-27 Waddeson Street, London E2 9DR, thecockatoo.london
-
At The Lavery, Anglo-Italian cooking caters to London’s design obsessiveThe former residence of Irish painter Sir John Lavery now houses an elegant restaurant where Georgian classicism meets 20th-century design favourites
-
A buzzy Korean pop-up becomes a permanent fixture in East LondonChef Joo Won has turned his Calong pop-up permanent in the arty enclave of Stoke Newington
-
New London restaurant Alba is a sun-soaked affairIts name meaning ‘sunrise’ in Italian, Alba is a new Amalfi-inspired restaurant set to shine in Knightsbridge
-
Now boarding Air Anya: Anya Hindmarch’s ode to aviation’s golden ageAnya Hindmarch’s new London concept store and travel accessories collection celebrate the glamour of 1970s air travel
-
‘A place for carnivores’ – Ibai is a London restaurant that celebrates Basque Country beefA Clerkenwell restaurant where unhurried steak is the star of the show
-
La Môme London finds its home at The Berkeley hotelAll the razzle-dazzle of Cannes and Monte Carlo is wrapped up in this one fabulous dining room and terrace in London
-
The new dawn of the London sandwich shopThe appeal of a quick meal between two slices of bread has long held sway in the UK. We look back on the rise of the sandwich shop and explore the new wave of London venues that are making it a more stylised experience
-
London's coolest design-led coffee shops for your Fashion Week fixCoffee shops are the heart of London’s neighbourhoods, discover those fusing speciality beans and stylish interiors for the perfect brew
