Ex-Dairy Chef to Open New Low-Waste, All-Day Restaurant and Bar in the City

A new all-day restaurant and bar from the former head chef of Clapham’s The Dairy will open in the City on 9 November. Lino, by Richard Falk, will open in an old linoleum and carpet warehouse in the Square Mile — or, rather, behind Smithfield market in the triangle between Chancery Lane, Barbican and St. Paul’s stations.

Falk, who has partnered with the Wright and Bell bar group, will take an “in-house approach to everything” and plans to make everything himself — including bread, charcuterie, and cocktails. The emphasis at Lino is on both “innovative” drinks and dishes. To achieve this, Falk says the kitchen will use “low-waste ingredients.”

Dishes will include the likes of sauerkraut and Montgomery cheddar croquettes as snacks or starters, where larger orders such as Belted Galloway wing rib of beef, with oxtail and potato tart, are designed to be shared. For dessert, the kitchen will use left-over pastries from the breakfast kiosk for a croissant ice cream, with brown butter, blood orange, and coffee. As well as most recently working under Robin Gill at the Dairy, Falk also counts the Michelin-starred Notting Hill restaurant, The Ledbury as a former employer.

Jade Nina Sarkhel/jadesarkhel

About his first restaurant, Falk said: “Lino will be the perfect spot for everything from stopping by for cocktails on a Friday night, to settling in to share a few plates for dinner. A great bar deserves food to match, with a care for produce and ingredients — I’m looking forward to creating everything from scratch, be it botanical infusions for cocktails or bread freshly baked in-house.” Drinks, such as the Snowball (Advocaat and lemonade), will be reimagined (unclear how) alongside other “kitsch” cocktails.

A central clover-shaped, waxed tulipwood bar will sit in the centre of the room decorated in millennial shades of peach, salmon pink, and rustic green with antique brass fixtures; the warehouse will retain its original brown glazed tiles. The owners say the space takes cues from minimalist Finnish design.

Commenting on the opening, partner Sarah Clark of Wright and Bell, said: “We’re opening Lino in an incredible space, in a beautiful building with an industrial heritage. Both a bar and a restaurant, [it] has been designed with its guests and its team in mind, taking a new, considered approach to drinking and dining in the City.”