A new music-led wine bar and restaurant from the team behind Frank’s Café in Peckham will open in London Fields in October, taking over the space formerly occupied by Bright.
Bambi will feature a menu from the chef Henry Freestone, formerly of Peckham Cellars, with “casual, fun food” using British produce the order of the day.
Opening night dishes will be cauliflower cheese arancini, smoked mackerel pate and pickled cucumbers, chicken parm ciabatta with vodka marinara sauce, and profiteroles.
By day, Bambi will open as a cafe and sandwich shop, serving focaccia slices filled with chicken Caesar, corned beef with mustard and pickles, and stracciatella and roasted courgettes.
While in a remarkable turn of events, the drinks list will be centred on natural and low-intervention wines. Self-styled “liveners” will include a house take on a classic martini and a frozen tequila number.
The venue will become less food-centric, more musical after pudding. Resident DJs will play from a custom-built wall of records until 1am on weekends. In charge of the music will be Run Dem Crew founder Charlie Dark MBE, while the sound system is being installed by Shivas Howard-Brown, who runs Friendly Pressure.
Bright restaurant, once twinned with the newly opened P. Franco — now under different stewardship — closed in March, and the site is being refurbished before the launch of Bambi, named after owner James Dye’s great-grandmother.
Dye, who also owns The Camberwell Arms, is working to turn the space into a “bright, airy space by day,” with high ceilings and plenty of natural light, before warm lighting takes over among “sleek wooden wall panels.”
