Great British Menu Winner Will Open First Restaurant in King’s Cross

Pip Lacey’s first solo restaurant has been confirmed. As Eater reported in December, the new restaurant will be called Hicce, and will focus on wood-fire cookery. The restaurant will open October 2018 in the Coal Drops Yard development in King’s Cross: Great British Menu 2017 winner Lacey will join Harts Group, Tom Dixon, Alain Ducasse and Anthony Demetre.

Styled hicce, the restaurant is a collaboration with Wolf and Badger, a design marketplace for independent brands established in 2010. Lacey is opening the restaurant with long-time business partner Gordy McIntyre, with backing from Murano chef-owner Angela Hartnett.

The restaurant will offer all day dining with a focus on wood-fired cooking, heat application method of the moment in London’s restaurants. This will not be pure grilling, though: that wood source will provide the fuel for steaming and smoking; for rye bread; for yakitori; for, in short, (almost) everything at the restaurant. McIntyre is creating the wine list, with a focus on the biodynamic and the organic.

Lacey has been cooking at London restaurants as part of the development process for Hicce, collaborating with newly-Southwark wild food specialists Native, as well as The Coal Shed at One Tower Bridge. Dishes from those collaborations have included Dorset mackerel with rhubarb, miso and wild watercress, and Iberico presa with peas, Jersey Royals and quail egg yolk. Hicce’s Instagram promises rum pineapple tempura, sea bream ceviche with sansho pepper and a variation on cabbage tartiflette, perhaps a sign of food to come.

Lacey said: “To be part of a development like Coal Drops Yard is an incredible opportunity and to have a partnership with Wolf & Badger makes this move all the more special. Gordy and I have been working to open our own restaurant for many years so this is an absolute dream realised for me and I cannot wait to get into the kitchen.”

More soon.