Fresh Pasta Restaurant Flour and Grape Replaces Antico in Bermondsey

A fresh pasta restaurant by the same team who closed Antico last month — will open on Bermondsey Street on 23 October. Nick Crsipini, the owner, who worked under Theo Randall at the InterContinental on Park Lane, and chef Adam Czmiel, will reopen the restaurant as Flour and Grape.

Antico, an Italian neighbourhood restaurant traded for five years; the operators cited unsustainable costs as the reason for its closure last month. The restaurant said on Twitter at the time that: “Rising costs makes Antico difficult to sustain. It's been a hard decision but we hope our days in hospitality aren't quite over yet.” They’re back in the game already — with a simpler menu of antipasti, pastas, gelati and an “extensive list of Italian wines,” featuring 25 by the glass, many with low mark-ups.

Antipasti will include homemade ricotta with beetroot or pork tenderloin “tonnato.” Echoing the sort of menu minimalism that’s made Padella such a queue-magnet, there will be eight types of “handmade pastas” — including bucatini with capers and tomatoes; gigli with a sausage ragu; tortelloni with roasted pork shoulder, and sage butter; and reginette with tiger prawn, prawn bisque, and basil. Dessert will revolve around gelati.

The 60-cover space will include new high seating and a counter bar. Pastas will also be available to takeaway.

Crsipini appears to have streamlined the concept in order to better manage the costs that forced the previous restaurant to cease trading. He told Big Hospitality that he’s “taken a step back and looked at how I can reduce costs without compromising the quality — focusing the menu on one concept means you don’t need so many chefs and can specialise...[it’s] more casual so I’m cutting down on linen and similar costs.”

The operators’ sister bar, 214 Bermondsey Gin and Cocktail Bar — downstairs, on the same premises — which they said would be “unaffected” — is on course to reopen after a refurbishment on 17 October.