The team behind Hackney restaurant Sune will open a new pub and restaurant in Smithfield Market in November, The Standard can reveal.
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Standard → open → November
Husband and wife team Charlie Sims and Honey Spencer, together with business partner Spencer Large, have taken on a site at Smithfield General Market, part of a decade-long redevelopment and will open in tandem with the new £70m London Museum.
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Sims → take → Museum
The trio have taken on the part of the building that once housed Bubb’s Le Restaurant Francais, a historic bistro made famous in the 1997 film Spice World (as Le Rendezvous), and a number of former wholesale shops and storehouses.
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that → take → shops
Food and wine will be overseen by Spencer and Sims, as well as incoming executive chef Charlie Taylor, who joins from Simon Rogan’s Michelin-starred London restaurant Aulis.
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who → oversee → restaurant
Taylor told The Standard that dishes will include a prawn scotch egg made with Scampi fries, smoked eel caesar salad, a fallow deer and juniper suet pudding, and a Guinness ice cream swiss roll.
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dishes → tell → fries
These will be available in the pub and dining room, which has been designed to “be a proper boozer”, Spencer said, and divided into a lounge bar, a saloon bar, and a snug.
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Spencer → design → bar
“We feel nervous and excited,” Spencer, who also looks after the wine list in Eurostar’s premier carriages, told the Standard.
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who → feel → Standard
“We’re daunted, but it’s good to be daunted.
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it → ’re → ?
There’s energy to the project, and it’s a big one, with a lot of responsibility.
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it → ’ → responsibility
We’re so proud of Sune (which will continue) but it was never going to sustain us all.
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it → ’re → us
We always wanted to open something bigger, more ambitious.
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We → want → something
We also want to make the place super accessible.
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place → want → ?
We’ll be making our own house wine and we want the place to feel like it’s been there forever — not so much like a JKS sort of model.
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it → make → model
Glasses of wine will start at around £8, while a pint of Guinness will cost £7.50; smaller dishes will float around £10 and mains will start from £20, though there’ll be pricier whole fish and premium cuts of meat too.
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mains → start → meat
Inside, the pub features dark wooden panelling, upcycled tables and chairs, exposed brick and old photographs.
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pub → feature → panelling
The lighting will be dim, almost Dickensian, harking back to the building’s Victorian roots.
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lighting → hark → roots
The team said the plan is to also be accessible.
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plan → say → ?
“We’re so proud of Sune but it was never going to sustain us all”
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it → ’re → us
Sims said: “When we first saw the building, we just thought it was incredible — an imposing entrance, big pillars, and lots of quiet corners and nooks inside.
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it → say → corners
It has so much character.
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It → have → character
It lends itself to a bustling pub, and is geared up for proper vertical drinking.
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It → lend → drinking
I think it has personality and our job is to make sure it has an identity.”
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has → think → identity
Sims said as well as the bistro, the site was home to a tailor’s, a dairy shop, and a grocery.
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site → say → tailor
It's expansive, with more parts of the building to be converted into further spaces next year.
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parts → convert → spaces
The original sign to Bubb’s, a projecting yellow block with bold black lettering, is believed to still exist, the last surviving relic of the venue that came before.
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that → project → venue
It is possibly under the guardianship of a man called Richard, who got married there in the late 1990s.
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who → call → 1990s
The Poet will open in November; The Poet, House 5 London Museum, General Market, Farringdon Street, EC4A 4AZ
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Poet → open → November
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