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Updated: 3.07.2019 — with opening hours and more details.
The owners of Lyle’s — one of London’s (some say the world’s) best restaurants — have revealed further details about their follow-up bakery, wine bar, and restaurant, Flor, which will open on the edge of Borough Market on Thursday 11 July.
Head chef James Lowe and general manager John Ogier say that Flor, a smaller, more casual sister site is “inspired by the buvettes of Paris and the pintxos bars in San Sebastián.” Six days a week, it will be open all day, “with a focus on sourdough bread and viennoiserie, produce- and provenance-led cooking, and an approachable wine list.”
Across two floors of a 19th century building replete with exposed brick on Bedale Street in the centre of the historic Borough Market, Flor will feature a downstairs bakery counter overlooking the open kitchen and upstairs dining room with banquette seating.
Lowe said: “Whereas at Lyle’s we focus on the best produce that Britain has to offer, with Flor we will be paying homage to the variety of European ingredients available in London, particularly with Borough Market on our doorstep. It will be a smaller, more laid-back space but with a big personality.”
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Downstairs, from 8am, the bakery will serve sourdough loaves, croissants, brioche filled with sourdough caramel, birch syrup Breton kouign amann, seasonal Danishes, and a raw cream bun. Bakers will be using British stone-ground wheat from Dorset, milled at Lyle’s and a sourdough starter which is as old as the restaurant (five.)
Some very promising lunch options have been revealed: Cured Mangalitsa (pork) and Comté sandwich in fermented potato bread; raw scallop, preserved gooseberry, and green tomato; and white asparagus with honey and walnuts.
At dinner, “simple plates” like burrata, grilled bread, and salted tomatoes; Cornish pollack brandade and pickled peppers; lamb ribs, yoghurt, and black lime; Lyle’s charcuterie; whole Dover sole, capers, and wild marjoram; and mussel, Spenwood, and Vin Jaune flatbread.
For dessert, the kitchen will offer individual chocolate sabayon tarts, loganberry fool or “simple” desserts made with any of the fruit the team pick themselves from the farm Lyle’s use in Sussex. Pastry and desserts have been developed by Lowe and by Lyle’s pastry chef — one of the most skilled in the city — Anna Higham.
Pastries, bread, and coffee: Monday — Friday, 9am — 12pm
Lunch: Monday — Friday, 12pm — 2.45pm
Dinner: Monday — Saturday, 5.30pm — 9.45pm
Brunch: 10am — 2.45pm
Closed Sundays
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The group will also serve brunch to London-based bake-lovers and unsuspecting tourists on Saturdays. From 10am, the menu will feature dishes such as coddled eggs with trout roe and za’atar; purple sprouting broccoli with cured egg and kipper butter; and eggy bread with maple and black pudding.
Ogier added: “We have decided to open a bakery, restaurant and wine bar that we like to think of as the little sister of Lyle’s, following the same philosophy with a love of good quality ingredients but with baking at the heart.”
Flor is backed by JKS Restaurants, the group behind Gymkhana, Trishna, Brigadiers, Hoppers, and Berenjak, which is an investor in Bao, Xu, Bubbledogs, Sabor, Kitchen Table, and Lyle’s. Bao the will open its fourth restaurant and karaoke room, also in Borough Market, on 6 May.
Bookings are now being taken for lunch and dinner from Thursday 11 July at florlondon.com.