Hackney Wine Institution Gets a Sibling for Aperitivo Just up the Road

One of the founding members of London’s contemporary wine scene is expanding up the east London thoroughfare it calls home, as Sager and Wilde opens Equal Parts at 245 Hackney Road.

Michael Sager envisions the bar as a hubbub of aperitivo and amaro in 2023, but with a license not yet in place, it’s opened early — helpful, given the well-documented financial pressures on restaurants and bars right now — as a coffee bar and wine shop. Sager is by now as familiar with mornings as evenings, having opened Fare, an all-day spot with notably decent brews, in summer 2018.

The appointment of Dara Klein and Diarmuid Goodwin to the stoves at the original bar has seen it go from strength to strength; Sager will hope his space can follow suit when it get its full license.

Croquetas. That’s it. That’s the restaurant

Iberian importer por excelencia Brindisa is going all in on deep-fried tapas with Kroketa, a Basque nook in Soho that replaces bakery Bread Ahead.

Beaucoup de chocolat for Borough Yards

Renowned French chef and restaurateur Alain Ducasse will bring his eponymous chocolatier to the new riverside development. Pour out an espresso for his coffee bar, which deserved better than its unceremonious departure from Coal Drops Yard.

A new era in Oxfordshire, via London

Luke Selby and brothers Theodore and Nathaniel will take over Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, with Luke assuming the role of executive head chef and Blanc retaining his patron position. This means a new head chef at Michelin-starred Evelyn’s Table, with James Goodyear — himself a veteran of Le Manoir — taking over from 2023.