Restored from rust: the barge, which will seat up to 40 diners
(Picture: Press handout )Brothers Fin and Lorcan Spiteri are to open their second restaurant in a barge floating on the Regent’s Canal, next door to the Holborn Studios in Islington.
Caravel — aptly named for a class of ship — will launch on March 10, serving simple, French and Italian-inflected cooking. Lorcan will chef, offering an oft-changing a la carte menu. Dishes are set to include the likes of sesame prawn toast with spiced tartare; confit duck rissoles; white crab tagliatelle with fennel and garlic; roast hake with curry sauce; and crispy pork belly served with anchoide, a paste from Provence made using anchovy fillets, garlic and olive oil.
His brother Fin, meanwhile, will run the restaurant floor and is responsible for Caravel’s pre-mixed cocktails, which will include a blood orange margarita, a Negroni made with rhubarb and a rum and coke Old Fashioned. The wine list will draw from mostly independent producers.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Caravel is the space itself. With room for 40 diners, the former working canal barge was first restored in the Nineties before the brothers took it over during lockdown, with Fin saying the pair: “have actively transformed this barge from a rusty old thing to this incredible space, and can’t wait to have people on board.”
The opening, which will serve from 5.50pm-11pm every Thursday to Saturday, marks the second restaurant for the siblings; pre-pandemic, in January 2020, they opened Studio Kitchen in Hoxton.
The pair will likely be familiar to those with a keen interest in London’s food and drink world: Lorcan worked previously at the likes of Quo Vadis, Oldroyd and Rochelle Canteen, before launching Guinea Fowlers, which served fried guinea fowl at the Duke's Head in Highgate and later at The Prince in Wood Green. Fin’s CV, meanwhile, includes stints at Bentleys, Locanda Locatelli, Trullo and at bars 69 Colebrooke Row, Untitled Bar and Ladies & Gents. The brothers are the sons of St John and Sessions Arts Club man Jon Spiteri and Rochelle Canteen co-founder, Melanie Arnold.
Caravel will open on March 9, at Eagle Wharf Rd, N1 7ED. For more information, follow @caravel_restaurant
