Club Gascon has been one of London's leading French restaurants since it opened 11 years ago across from Smithfield market.
Club Gascon has been one of London's leading French restaurants since it opened 11 years ago across from Smithfield market. Back then, Chef-patron Pascal Aussignac quickly responded to the overwhelming demand (they were getting 600 calls a day), and established wine bar Cellar Gascon, bistro and deli Comptoir Gascon and Sloane Square’s Le Cercle, all influenced by the regional cooking of south west France.
With new restaurant Cigalon and downstairs bar Baranis on Chancery Lane, Aussignac has expanded the Gascon family yet again, introducing a menu inspired by Provence. In charge are two of his previous head chefs, who both hail from the region. “Here you get the spirit of Côte D’Azur, of Saint Tropez and the Riviera,” Aussignac tells us, “we’re bringing the sun to London.”
On Thursday 14 July Baranis will be hosting a Bastille Day celebration for all. Fitted with London’s only pétanque court and a wine list inspired not only by Provence but Corsica as well —the manager is from there— the French Revolution will be celebrated in style, with specialties from the chefs and shots of tricolore pastis gratis at the door for all guests.
Sharing a kitchen with Cigalon upstairs, which is itself designed as an indoor garden and orangerie, the bar food at Baranis is tapas-style sharing plates of exactly what you want to eat while enjoying fine wine and cocktails: caramelised onion and anchovy tart, traditional fish soup with rouille, crostini with aubergine caviar, goat’s cheese and tomato – all of it salty and savoury flavour. Even the seemingly simple crunchy vegetables with smoked salt butter is exceptionally satisfying.
While Chancery Lane, with its rows of Georgian buildings, offices and law firms, may seem an unlikely place for a new restaurant and bar, when Club Gascon first opened on the square at west Smithfield all those years ago, it wasn’t an obvious choice either – despite the listed building’s charm, marble walls and high ceiling. "Smithfield market was not like it is today,” Aussignac remembers. “It hadn’t been refurbished yet, and there were empty buildings around us. There were no lights on the street. We were one of the only things here.” Now, they’re at the heart of culinary Clerkenwell, a stone’s throw from St John and North Road.
For lunch at Club Gascon we enjoy some of the finest contemporary French cooking in London, including a broad foie gras menu that changes seasonally. The chef’s special (two dishes at £22 per head) includes soft and sweet baby raviolis with piperade and glaciale tomato water, and pine-smoked clams and mussels eclade with oyster chantilly for starters. For mains we have the delicately-cooked Pollock on a bed of perfectly texturised cauliflower couscous and citrus vinaigrette, and old spot pork variation, also with considered textures and squid-chorizo chutney.
In other Gascon news, Comptoir patrons will soon be able to enjoy Aussignac's newly-launched foie gras burger, which recently won the Best in Taste award at Taste of London and has quickly become a favourite of ours.
Join in the revolutionary spirit at Barranis for Bastille Day on Thursday 14 July. Ananda and Neil visited Baranis on Friday, 1 July at 8pm, and Club Gascon on Monday 4 July at 1:30pm.
Text by Ananda Pellerin
Ananda Pellerin is a London-based writer and Neil Wissink is a visual artist also based in London. More from The Hunger here, and contact The Hunger here.
