Friends and wine importers Joe Haynes and Ben Butterworth, together with chef Tom Hurst, are set to open a new restaurant and wine bar, Cloth, in Farringdon this spring. Having spent years supplying London’s top restaurants through their separate wine businesses, Joe and Ben have joined forces with Tom, who has worked at Brawn, The Marksman, Levan, and most recently as Head Chef at Lasdun, to launch the trio’s first restaurant together.

Located in a Grade II listed building on Cloth Fair, Cloth is part of a historic row of buildings in the City of London that survived the Great Fire of 1666. Down this atmospheric alley opposite St Bartholomew church, Cloth is taking over a double fronted corner site that’s beneath the former home of poet John Betjeman and next door to the two oldest residential buildings in London. Inside, low ceilings, wood panelling and antique wall lights with warm candle bulbs create a cosy, intimate atmosphere, while marble tables, long dark wood banquettes, antique crockery, and silver plate cutlery will create the feel of a classic bistro.

Cloth will have both a service continu bar area offering drinks and snacks from 12pm until closing, plus a more formal restaurant open for lunch and dinner. Tom’s seasonal menus will celebrate the best of British produce, with sample dishes on the opening restaurant menu set to include:

• Cornish Squid, Black Olive, Preserved Lemon and Lardo

• Brown Crab and Berkswell Tagliarini

• Somerset Hogget, Grilled Cos Lettuce, Smoked Tongue and Anchovy

• Cornish Pollock with Razor Clams, White Asparagus and Lovage

• Rhubarb Sorbet with Blood Orange Caramel

There will also be a weekly-changing set lunch menu offering up the likes of mussels, fennel and lardo on toast, and hogget sausage with chickpeas at £24 for two courses or £29 for three. The bar area meanwhile will offer snacks like Carlingford Oyster and Chardonnay Vinegar; Charcuterie; Cervelle de Canut & Crudites; and Fried Panisse, Roscoff Onion and Sumac.

Around half the wine list at Cloth will be made up of bottles from Joe’s Penzer Wines and Ben’s eponymous import and supply businesses. Ben specialises in grower champagnes and new-wave Bordeaux, but also represents winemakers from Alsace, Burgundy, Beaujolais, Loire, and Luxembourg. Joe on the other hand leans more towards Germany, having worked in wine production and farming for several years and studied winemaking at Geisenheim. 

The other 50% of the list will be made up of wines from friends in the industry with the shared ethos of championing small, independent, and sustainable producers, such as Emile Wines, The Winery, Fingal Rock, Carte Blanche, Winemakers Club, and Raeburn. There will be a constantly rotating by-the-glass list with specials under Coravin and lots of old and rare bottles. Wines will be affordable and approachable and on Mondays there will be £5 corkage all day. With their strong direct links with winemakers, there will also be regular winemaker dinners and special events throughout the year.