Hackney Restaurant Serving Caviar on Fried Chicken Closes After Five Months

Another day, another closure. Chef Andy Taylor’s Carte Blanche has closed its premises on Mare Street in Hackney five months after opening.

Eater understands that the restaurant closed some time in December last year. The last time the restaurant was active on social media was 13 December and it is no longer accepting orders via Deliveroo.

Taylor, a former musician, had previously co-founded the street food burger outfit, Le Bun, which no longer exists. Last summer, he promised east London the combination of “indulgent French flavours with American comfort food classics.”

“I want to create a place where you can get caviar on your fried chicken, with a glass of great wine and maybe rounded off with a glass of whiskey,” he said at the time. Eagle-eyed observers who’d heard of David Chang’s Momofuku classic recognised that although it wasn’t original, it was cause for excitement.

Carte Blanche had replaced the wildly popular cult-restaurant Rita’s, which now exists in an evolved form in the noisiest restaurant development in town.

“Carte Blanche will be a relaxed space, with anything from AC/DC to Old School Hip Hop on the stereo and exciting French American cooking on the menu which is no longer limited to burgers,” Taylor promised. It wasn’t to be. The site remains vacant with its shutters down.

Eater has contacted Taylor for more information regarding his future plans.

More soon.