Acclaimed Vegetarian Restaurant Will Close in North London

The acclaimed vegetarian restaurant, Ceremony, will close on 30 March. Co-owners Joe Stokoe and Ali Dedianko have decided to close their restaurant in Tufnell Park in order to focus on their new family, but describe the closure as a “ta ta for now,” rather than a permanent goodbye.

Writing on Instagram today, Dedianko and Stokoe said:

It’s with heavy hearts that we’ve decided to close Ceremony at the end of this month. We haven’t taken this decision lightly and those who know us well know that we, along with our dream team, poured our hearts into this little restaurant. And while we’ve loved being part of the Fortess Road family for the past year and a half, we’ve decided it’s time to prioritise our own little fam. The twins turned 6 months nearly a week ago and they certainly weren’t in the business plan! Restaurants, like kids, need nurturing to thrive; the time and attention that goes into maintaining a successful business cannot be understated. We’d love to say we’re those people who can juggle it all, but we’d rather not juggle at the expense of our family.

Ceremony opened in autumn 2017, and won near-universal critical acclaim: Grace Dent described it as “a restaurant joyously bucking the vegetarian clichés,”; “an outstanding restaurant by any measure. Outstanding,” according to Giles Coren. Even Michael Deacon was impressed, if his review dwelled more on Morrissey than the restaurant in question; a dish of crisp duck egg on polenta with wild mushrooms became something of a signature.