Last year, Shoreditch’s Leroy celebrated seven years of opening, having won and lost a Michelin star. Now, two Leroy alumni have taken over and re-invented the restaurant as a brand new restaurant called Duchy.
Duchy is led by Alex Grant and chef Simon Shand, who first met at Leroy. The chef was part of their Michelin-starred team and has just completed a residency at Topa at Provisions on Holloway Road (which we thought was fantastic). While that restaurant was heavily influenced by the Basque style, the new restaurant will draw on French and Italian influences. The Duchy in the restaurant’s name refers to the Duchy of Savoy, which stretched from southeast France to northwest Italy. Shand’s previous experience comes from Arbutus, Wild Honey and Frenchie, so he will draw on those restaurants.
The menu features French, Italian and Mediterranean dishes using British ingredients, including:
Pork shoulder and smoked eel croquettes
Brown crab rice balls
Anchovies and lardons on marjoram toast
Roasted pork neck with bagnacada and courgettes
Dover sole with Grenoble sauce
They’ll also have larger sharing dishes like beef ribs or red mullet with white butter sauce. Meanwhile, desserts include vanilla ice cream with fried lattes and cannoli with sugared ricotta.
The wines will also be from the Savoy region, with promises of “world-class (not necessarily expensive)” wines on the menu. As for cocktails, they’ll have local negronis and spritz, and you can expect grappa on the wine list, too. The room will be much the same as Leroy’s, with a small, fresh decor and a 200-album collection that changes regularly.
If you’ve been missing Leroy’s since it closed, this is definitely a place to get excited about.
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