Owners of Two Beautiful North London Restaurants Open Bakery

Restaurateur Jeremie Cometto-Lingenheim and chef David Gingell have opened their third site today, 18 September 2018. The new bakery, restaurant, and wine bar is called Jolene, and has opened on the site that Dandy held on Newington Green.

The duo have announced that they will join together with farmer Andy Cato, where Jolene will make “everything from scratch each day,” including milling Cato’s grains into “fresh nutritious” flours which will be used in breads, pastries and fresh pastas. Like at Westerns Laundry and Primeur, a daily changing menu will be written on the bakery’s blackboard.

Jolene will open from 9am throughout the week, with a bakery counter stacked with loaves and pastries. The offering will also include raisin bread and sausage rolls; plus madeleines, palmiers, financiers, croissants, and cinnamon buns.

Cometto-Lingenheim and Gingell said in a statement:

“We have decided to open a bakery restaurant that revolves around and relies on the grains rather than it just being another ingredient. 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.

“We’re bringing the same values and narrative to Jolene, this time with breads baked with Andy’s incredible grains and inspired by his passion for sustainable, efficient and sensical farming methods.”

Naroques, Cote’s farm in Gascony, launched in 2008 when, in reaction to what he deemed “ecologically devastating effects of big agriculture” he began researching ways to grow nutritious, chemical-free crops in a sustainable way. To provide a local supply for Jolene, grains for the bakery will be sourced from two U.K. farms, one in Goodwood, Sussex, and Priory Farm in Norfolk.

Bakeries appear to be one route for restaurant operators who are looking both to diversify and protect their wider portfolios. Bread is comparatively cheap to produce, new-wave bakeries are en vogue, and people tend to buy bread frequently. Both St John and Hedone, stalwarts of the restaurant scene, have both recently announced that they will expand and develop their bakery divisions across the city.

From 7pm, Thursday to Sunday, the kitchen will serve “simple plates” for dinner, with a roster of top suppliers sought for first-rate ingredients: vegetables from Flourish farm in Cambridge (whose profile has been raised through a relationship with Brat in Shoreditch), fish from the day boats in Cornwall and Devon, and meat from a farming collective in North Yorkshire.

Smaller dishes and a daily stuffed pasta will regularly change, while to share, guests can choose from the likes of grilled cod on the bone, olives and artichokes or a 1-kilogram T-bone steak, parmesan and rocket. For dessert, tarts and cheeses and a bread, apricot and butter pudding will be available for two.

Naturally, the wines will follow a “similarly stripped-back approach,” with a small selection of whites, reds and sparkling wines picked by “natural wine enthusiast” Cometto-Lingenheim and the team of sommeliers from Primeur and Westerns Laundry. Tee-totalers will be offered a daily fresh juice and in-house fermented drinks.

The restaurant itself will feature two big sharing tables in the middle of the room, with counter dining seats overlooking the kitchen and bakery. Eight smaller tables will look out onto a small front terrace, which, weather permitting, will also feature space to eat and drink.

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