A new food, music and arts venue is to open at Somerset House in May, launching as part of the venue’s milestone 25th anniversary year.
Called Setlist and situated on the rooftop terrace above the Thames, the concept has been designed to champion new and emerging creators, celebrating the best of London culture, from DJs to art installations, poetry to chefs.
Menus will be designed by some of London’s most exciting female chefs. Rising star Opeoluwa Odutayo will serve dishes inspired by Nigeria, where she grew up, and Caribbean cuisine, with dishes such as jerk chicken skewers with scotch bonnet chutney, slow-cooked beef brisket with suya mayo, and a West African-style fried chicken burger.
All will partner with food producers for their menus, with author and pop-up chef Sophie Wyburd teaming up with the now-famous flour supplier Wildfarmed to create a series of pizzette.
Elsewhere, Andrea Montes Renaud and Laura Copp, the duo behind the Mexican concept Masafina, will bring a collection of tacos, and Terri Mercieca, the founder of the inimitable ice cream brand Happy Endings, is to offer a rotating selection of soft serve sundaes.
As for music, Clement Ogbonnaya has been assigned overture and will platform up-and-coming acts such as Pxssy Palace founder Skyler Myler, Mark Ashley, Donny Sunshine, and Mercedes Benson.
Art will play as big a role on the 50m-long covered pavilion perched above the river. The inaugural commission will be a large painted installation by Brixton-based artist Farouk Agoro, whose work uses markings “as a visual language to explore space, rhythm, and emotion”.
An announcement sent to the Standard said Setlist “will join Somerset House’s thriving resident creative community, sharing its ethos of innovation and multi-disciplinary arts”.
The team behind the project includes Thomas Kidd (Bar Elba and Luna Springs); James Dye (co-owner of Frank’s in Peckham and music-led wine bar Bambi); Paul Smyth (one half of the artists Something & Son and co-founder of Mission Kitchen and Makerversity, one of Somerset House’s long-standing creative residents); and – as mentioned – Ogbonnaya, the founder of the Prince of Peckham and Queen of the South pubs.
There will be a bar, too, offering local beers, wines and cocktails, including spicy margaritas, spritzes and classic negronis. It will also offer one of London’s biggest non-alc menus.
River Terrace South Side, Somerset House, WC2R 1LA, setlistlondon.com
