Founders of Renowned Art Magazine and Festival Frieze Will Open a Sunny Grill Restaurant

The founders of the renowned international art magazine and festival Frieze will open a restaurant at the organisation’s London headquarters this summer. Toklas, will open within 180 The Strand, adjacent to Frieze’s offices at 1 Surrey Street, and feature an “expansive garden terrace” according to job advertisements placed with Countertalk and Code Hospitality.

Licensing plans for the restaurant — here named as “Frieze restaurant” and submitted by Soho House — show that expansive terrace opening out on to Surrey Street, with around 60 covers total inside and out. Frieze magazine co-founders Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover say that they want the restaurant to serve “simple and unpretentious, but fresh and excellent” food, with the offering revolving around a large grill destined for fish and vegetables moreso than meat. The restaurant will also incorporate a bakery and food shop, and appears to be named for Alice B. Toklas, the life partner of Gertrude Stein who published cookbooks and memorably got a recipe for hashish fudge past British censors.

Soho House/via Westminster Council Licensing Portal

Sharp and Slotover founded Toklas Ltd in 2019, and their directorship marks this restaurant out as distinct from other operations within 180 The Strand, which is owned by Soho House and includes 180 Pasta, a collaboration between Mateo Zielonka and The Store, which is also set to open this year. Frieze’s annual art fair in Regent’s Park regularly plays host to pop-ups from some of the the city’s most interesting operators, including the likes of Gabe Pryce and Missy Flynn’s Rita’s; Sam and Sam Clark’s Moro; Michelin-starred Locanda Locatelli and the River Cafe; and Xu, the now-closed restaurant from the Bao team, so its opening a restaurant of its own feels a logical progression.

Eater has contacted Frieze for further information on Toklas. More soon.