Adam Handling to Open Flagship Restaurant Frog in Covent Garden

Chef Adam Handling will open his third restaurant — Frog by Adam Handling on Friday 1 September on Southampton Street in Covent Garden. The new site will also take bookings.

The restaurant is said to be the “flagship restaurant for the group,” offering a more formal approach than that at The Frog E1 (near Brick Lane.) It will have a large open-plan kitchen, and a 20-cover private dining room in the basement with its own separate kitchen. The main 50-cover restaurant will serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a team of 60 staff.

The flagship restaurant will be the second restaurant in the group; any subsequent restaurants launched will, like The Frog E1, be named after the postcode of their location. (Handling’s first restaurant in London was the Caxton Grill at the St. Ermins hotel between Westminster and Victoria; the chef left in September 2016.)

Handling said in a statement: “I’m hugely excited about opening the new restaurant this year. The Frog E1 has been so well-received and set the standard for us as a group, and the new restaurant will be rooted in those foundations but also have its own, distinct and more formal style with its own dishes and frequently changing menu. The new site will draw a different clientele to the first restaurant in Shoreditch, and I want it to be unlike anything else currently available in Covent Garden. The site has taken a year to renovate and it was three months behind schedule but I wasn’t going to open it until it was 100% perfect. This flagship restaurant is every chef’s dream.”

Handling is 28 years old and is a serial competitor (and winner) of culinary awards. He has been named Scottish Chef of the Year, the British Culinary Federation’s Chef of the Year in 2014, Scottish Young Chef of the Year and was shortlisted for “Best Newcomer” at the Catey Awards 2017. His appearance on multiple television programmes — including MasterChef: The Professionals, Great British Menu and Saturday Kitchen — preceded his opening the Caxton Grill.

Handling’s third site in London is Bean & Wheat, a sustainable deli and coffee shop the chef opened in Spitalfields last month.

The Frog by Adam Handling will open on 1 September at 34-38 Southampton Street, London WC2E 7HF.