The Harts Group, who are best known as the team behind Barrafina and the current custodians of Quo Vadis, are continuing their expansion across London as they ready themselves to head into the new Borough Yards development just down from London Bridge.
The Harts will open a new Barrafina, a second Parrillan and a brand new sherry bar, Bar Daskal, come early 2022.
The new Barrafina will look to replicate the format and successes of its sister sites – there are four others, including one on Soho’s Dean Street that boasts a Michelin star – and will offer an array of Spanish tapas, Spanish wines and daily-changing specials; the menu is overseen by executive head chef Angel Zapata-Martin.
Parrillan likewise opens following the guide of its predecessor. The first, which opened in Coal Drops Yard by King’s Cross in 2019, serves a choice of Spanish-inflected meat, fish and vegetarian dishes, which guests cook for themselves using small, smoking metal grills know as parrillas, which lend the restaurants their name.
Daskal is perhaps the most interesting of the trio, in part because it is the only new opening. Besides sherry, the bar will specialise in Spanish wine and will plate up cold tapas, which is expected to mostly be what might be dubbed “drinking food”. Named for sculptor and sailor Vladimir Daskalof, the grandfather of Sam, Eddie and James Hart, the bar is a nod to Daskalof’s life spent in Mallorcan village of Estellencs, where he settled after life at sea. The Bulgarian-born Daskalof and his Scottish wife Helen built a house in Estellencs where the brothers spent much of their youth and still visit annually. A selection of Daskalof’s work will be on display.
Sam Hart said of the openings, “My love of Spain and its cuisine began as a child in the house my grandfather built in the small village of Estellencs. Even though Barrafina was largely modelled on Barcelona’s Cal Pep, the legacy of C’an Daskal has been an ever-present influence throughout my career. It is wonderful to honour these memories by bringing Bar Daskal, Barrafina and Parrillan south of the river.”
Borough Yards is a new retail, leisure, restaurant and office space presently under development; beside the Harts, an Everyman Cinema is set to open, alongside various shops. The group previously invested enthusiastically in Coal Drop Yards when it too was a fledgling project.
