The three railway arches, which until mid-January, had been occupied by the pioneering London coffee roasting company Monmouth are the subject of fresh rumour in the restaurant industry this week. After just over a decade, Monmouth relocated its principal coffee roasting facility to Spa Terminus, a little further south in Bermondsey.
Eater has learnt that the three-arch site, which though occupied in its entirety by Monmouth, is being lined up by three potential new restaurant tenants. Among them is a collaboration between Matt Wells, a co-owner of The Dairy in Clapham, Daniel Wilson (pictured), one half of the ousted duo from Dandy in Newington Green, and Rikesh Patel, the former bar manager at Magpie on Heddon Street. Eater understands that the restaurant would be a modern Antipodean restaurant under the Dandy brand, with an emphasis, too, on coffee and baked goods. The lease on the site is not yet signed.
Maltby Street and Rope Walk (a pedestrianised continuation of the same street, and home to Maltby Street Market on Saturdays) is home to a handful of cult restaurants, including 40 Maltby Street, St John Maltby and Bar Tozino.
Monmouth started roasting and retailing coffee in 1978 initially in the basement of the original site on Monmouth Street in Covent Garden. Nearly thirty years later, in 2007, the brand opened a shop in Borough Market and into the three converted railway arches in on Maltby Street in Bermondsey.
Neal’s Yard Dairy, which was founded by Randolph Hodgson, the husband of Monmouth Coffee founder Anita Leroy, also recently relocated from Druid Street (parallel to Maltby and Rope Walk) to Spa Terminus. Leroy and Hodgson’s son, Raef, is the founder and owner of 40 Maltby Street.
More soon.