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Good news for south-east-based fans of latkes, salt beef and cheesecake: Peckham Rye is getting a 1970s-styled all-day restaurant inspired by the corner bars, diners and cafés of New York.
Larry’s, which is set to open on Blenheim Grove in March, is the latest launch from Nicholas Balfe, Mark Gurney and Matt Bushnell, the team behind Brixton’s Salon and bistro Levan next door in Peckham. Their new place is named after music pioneer DJ Larry Levan, and after-dark diners will get to experience the restaurant’s vintage Celestion Ditton sound system. ‘Larry’s is somewhere we’d expect Larry Levan to go to after playing one of his sets,’ Balfe explains. ‘We’ve cherry-picked everything we love about eating in New York.’
Breakfast will be inspired by the Big Apple’s Italian and Jewish delis, with lox and latkes aplenty, as well as soft-boiled eggs with mortadella, emmental and focaccia. Come lunchtime sarnies, including a meatball melt, are on the menu, plus a waldorf salad, fresh pasta and veal schnitzel with fermented chilli mayonnaise. And for dinner, globetrotting sharing plates are followed by a cheesecake of the day, homemade gelato and slices of babka. Continuing the diner theme, there’ll be lots of orange laminate, Eames chairs and lightbox menus above the counter.
The space Larry’s is moving into was, until recently, occupied by much-loved bakery Brick House – Balfe’s restaurant group decided not to renew its lease when it expired this year. This was a huge blow to Brick House’s legions of fans, as well as to owners Fergus and Sharmin Jackson, who simultaneously had to close their East Dulwich branch due to a rent hike. A time of mixed feelings, then: but we’re looking forward to seeing how Larry’s settles in.
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