Despite being full to the brim with a massive load of bankers, the City of London does at least have one good thing going for it: José Pizarro. The Spanish chef has ventured into the Square Mile for his new restaurant after finding success with two previous restaurants — José and Pizarro — on Bermondsey Street in London Bridge. The new place, which this time around goes the whole hog in using both forename and surname (who knows what’ll be next), has expanded its scope on the previous offerings, adding breakfast to a menu of Spanish classics, tapas and charcuterie. Wall Street’s Gordon Gecko may have opined that lunch was for wimps, but here in Britain our financial finaglers have, if nothing else, a certain breeding which upholds the observance of traditional mealtimes.
The fat cats have ample room to relax at José Pizarro, which runs to 1400 sqft and 65 covers including bar counter berths for quick stops and communal tables for client meetings or hefty bonus celebrations. CADA Design have been at the drawing board, and clearly invested plenty of time and effort in the Broadgate Circle premises. The restaurant’s interior fuses elements from its two forerunners, pairing simple design with rustic materials that nonetheless have a palpable high-end quality. The concrete panels that form the backdrop to the dining space are decorated with an abstraction of a pattern found at a monastery in Pizarro’s Extremadura hometown — just one example of CADA using cultural heritage to build a narrative at the restaurant.
