The Team Behind Kitty Fisher’s Are Opening a Second Restaurant in Covent Garden [Updated]

23/04: Updated with menu and opening date.

Eater London has learned that the team behind celebrity and society magnet Mayfair restaurant Kitty Fisher’s will open a second site in Covent Garden in the spring of next year — it will be called Cora Pearl. Head chef George Barson will be in charge of the kitchen at the new site, while continuing to oversee the menu at Kitty Fisher’s.

The 60-cover restaurant in the restored ground and lower-ground floors of 30 Henrietta Street, will open in June of 2018, on a street whose landlords seem intent on registering Covent Garden as a serious food destination in the city, continuing to change its reputation as as a retail-focused tourist trap.

Ahead of opening, the menu has been revealed to include a range of snacks including shrimp Newburg and a pig jowl and Montgomery’s cheddar toastie, alongside lighter dishes like leek heart with smoked eel, and quail with baby gem and Coolea. Larger dishes will include fish stew, as well as confit pork belly with smoked quince, and brill with devilled crab.

Desserts will include wild strawberry, earl grey ice cream and frozen sablé and coffee, cardamom cake and milk sorbet.

Drinks at Cora Pearl will feature a list of signature cocktails, including the chaine d’or (gin, quinquina, Chartreuse and lime), French pearl (gin, pastis; a riff on the French martini), and the full fathom five, a rum-based drink heavy on the seaweed botanicals. The wine list will include an extensive cellar list of reserve cuvées, available by the glass via Coravin.

Cora Pearl will join other notable restaurants, let by “leisure property specialists” Davis Coffer Lyons, including Ollie Dabbous’ Henrietta, Frenchie, Balthazar, and The Oystermen on the Covent Garden estate. While big name arrivals expected to open next year also include SushiSamba, Petersham Nurseries and Red Farm.

A statement seen by Eater London said: “On behalf of Capital & Counties Properties PLC (‘Capco’), the development leasing team at Davis Coffer Lyons has announced that it has agreed terms with Cora Pearl in Covent Garden, a new restaurant from the team behind renowned Mayfair establishment, Kitty Fishers.”

Lottie Newman, Senior Surveyor, Davis Coffer Lyons, said:

“This restaurant, named after one of the 19th Century’s most garlanded and celebrated Courtesans, will be the second restaurant from the team behind Kitty Fisher’s in Mayfair after a search spanning over two years for the right site that suited their style.”

Meanwhile, a delighted Michelle McGrath, Director of Capco Covent Garden, said:

“The signing of Cora Pearl to Covent Garden, coupled with forthcoming restaurant openings from Petersham Nurseries, SushiSamba and Red Farm further strengthens our reputation as a major foodie hub, both in London and globally. Focusing on high quality and unique food concepts has been core to our strategy, along with excellent retail and culture, transforming the Covent Garden customer experience.”

Kitty Fisher’s opened — to critical acclaim — in December 2014 by three friends, Tom Mullion, Tim Steel and Oliver Milburn. Critical to the restaurant’s success in the food industry was Tomos Parry and Chris Leach’s cooking, which was principally carried out over a charcoal grill in the tiny basement kitchen of the site. Parry, who is opening his own restaurant Brat, also next spring, left Kitty Fisher’s at the start of the year to focus on personal projects.