Ex-Duck & Waffle chef Dan Doherty to open pub
Doherty, who until recently was a chef at the 24-hour Duck & Waffle at the Heron Tower in the City of London, posted a picture on Instagram along with statement outlining his relief on completing on the £450,000 Marylebone pub.
The chef, who will open the Royal Oak with business partner Andy Ward, expects to start trading on 19 June.
He said on his Instagram account: “Today, after a lot of bloody hard work, we completed on this beautiful pub.”
‘Not in the best state’
He added: “I can’t begin to describe how this feels. It’s not in the best state, but it has a beautiful soul, one that we wish to bring back to life through plenty more hard work.
“We have put every penny we have into this, along with some trusty friends, and it’ll take us a while to get it up and running but we will make this work.
“We have listed building consent to deal with, and maybe some operators would shut for that often lengthy period of time and reopen with a fanfare, but we aren’t going to do that.
“I firmly believe pubs are the anchors in a community; facilitating great times rather than dictating them. Because of that, we want to share our vision with our community. We want you to see it at its worst all the way through to its best.”
Kitchen search begins
The post continued: “With everything in-between. We will be closed until 19 June so we can give it a clean, find a kitchen from somewhere, install some epic beers and build our wine list.
“Then after that, well let’s see. I’m not even sure if this is the way to announce these things but who cares, I’m excited and proud, and so thankful to everyone that’s helped us so far. Now get me back in that bloody kitchen asap!”
There will be minor modernisations made to the pub, while a new kitchen will be installed.
Doherty announced plans to leave Duck & Waffle to open his own restaurant in April.
