Skye Gyngell – formerly of the Petersham Nurseries Café – is to open her first solo London venture ‘Spring’ on 14 October. The 100-cover restaurant, set within Somerset House’s ‘New Wing’, will occupy an elegant 18th century dining room that hasn’t been open to the public for 150 years.

Attached to the restaurant will be a parlour serving ices and coffees called The Salon. This will be no ordinary gelateria, however, with flavours like burnt caramel, chocolate and hazelnut nougat; quince, bay and verjuice, and wildflower honey and candied walnuts on offer. Bicerin, a layered espresso and chocolate drink from Turin, is a highlight of the coffee menu.

Spring’s lunch and dinner menus of eight starters, eight main courses and five desserts include dishes such as grilled langoustine with seaweed butter; roasted turbot with porcini and bone marrow; and fillet of beef with brown butter, anchovy and wild greens. There will be buttermilk cream with rye shortbread and damson ice cream, and hazelnut tart with warm chocolate sauce for dessert.

And it sounds as though the French, Italian and English wine list could be an interesting feature, chosen by sommelier Frank Embleton, who joins Spring from Shoreditch’s trendy Clove Club, and consultant Jack Lewens.

*”Somerset House”. Image licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

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