This Is London’s Coolest Bakery

Jolene, in Newington Green, is “a bakery restaurant that revolves around and relies on the grains rather than it just being another ingredient.”

This is how owners Jeremie Cometto-Lingenheim and David Gingell describe their new project, a lightly-worn, industrial-pastoral paean to continental hospitality and traditions rooted in the soil and the fields: bread from grains, dishes from vegetables and more grains, wine from grapes. It follows Westerns Laundry and Primeur, iterating on those restaurants’ principles while bringing something new to what they have accreted. “Our approach at Primeur and Westerns Laundry has always been attuned to the need for sourcing well-farmed produce ethically grown with soil fertility in mind and tended with care.”

That approach manifests in a scrawly blackboard menu, long on assemblies of good ingredients exchanging sideways glances: pork and green sauce, buttermilk and plums, ravioli and sage butter. Continental Europe stakes an assertive claim, with exceptional crisp, buttery croissants, palmiers, madeleines, charcuterie, anchovies, and cheeses featuring heavily; a plate of fried eggs and fried potatoes draped in jamón exemplifies the plain-speaking, class on comfort approach. So too does the brisk list of natural wines.

Take a look inside Newington Green’s latest neighbourhood restaurant — one that has already won over the celebrities of east London — that promises much, and is already delivering.

Samuel Ashton

Samuel Ashton

Samuel Ashton

Samuel Ashton

Samuel Ashton/for Eater London

Fried eggs, fried potatoes, and jamón

Samuel Ashton

Samuel Ashton

Samuel Ashton

Samuel Ashton

Samuel Ashton

Samuel Ashton