Inception

It’s Friday, early on the Farringdon Road. An invigorating bluster is blustering, locks flow from beneath an XL beret, a door's ajar, warmth & wafts of hearty cooking plume forth. Over the threshold: a delivery, 2 bottles smashed, a cascade of music, chatter & clatter of the kitchen, energy, excitement, enterprise - lunch. Welcome to the weekend & welcome to the Quality Wines newsletter.

To those magic mushrooms: Cep, King Bolete, Penny Bun, Toad, Steinpilz, Porcini, vidi, vici. This week pan fried in butter & parsley; next, served amongst hand-troweled tagliatelle with a shower of Parmigiano. To tempt alongside, a triumvirate of Nebbiolos by the glass to complement wet wax jackets, hounds hankering on the leash, russet leaves & bright, crystalline mornings.

To a more Mycenaean mycelia, a French interpretation of a Hellenic presentation. ‘Champignons à la Grecque’ celebrates the humble button mushroom cooked in a heady liquor of vinegar & wine, bay & thyme, finished with a fine cracking of black pepper & a throng of toothpicks.

Roast scallops get baked in Café de Paris butter while a salad of white beans is fulsome with rocket, figs & Ossau Iraty; steamed fillets of hake get treated to chickpeas, spinach, harissa & allioli; and rabbit legs are roasted in the Ligurian style with pine nuts, wine & olives.

A rather special plum & demerara cake is both crunchy & chewy in the best way; a roasted pear ice cream & a bitter chocolate sorbet join our classic cannoli triptych.

SET LUNCH £29/£35 2/3 COURSES DAILY

At lunch & between 5pm-6pm (or until stocks last) we are also offering our panino con bollito with a Peroni Rosso for £10. Twenty buns per service, so get in quick to avoid disappointment. Living la dolce vita.

See you all soon.

Marcos, Nick & the Team.