Manteca to double up in Shoreditch

The pair have submitted a planning application to takeover the former Pizza Express site on Curtain Road, not far from Carter's barbecue restaurant Smokestak.

According to the Design and Access Statement, the two-storey site has stood vacant for more than a year. 

Leach, previously of Petersham Nurseries, Pitt Cue and Kitty Fisher’s, launched Manteca in partnership with Carter on Great Marlborough Street in Soho in late 2019.

The concept had previously been established by the pair during a four-month residency at Mayfair-based residency restaurant 10 Heddon Street.

Inspired by the regional cooking styles Leach encountered on his travels through Rome and Napoli, Manteca 'aims to capture the simplicity and conviviality of Italian dining culture’, whilst also taking cues from the ‘up-tempo metropolitan’ food scenes the chef experienced in Los Angeles and New York

The regularly-changing menu features a range of small and large sharing plates that revolve around nose-to-tail cooking, hand-rolled pastas, and fire-cooked cuts to share.

Sample dishes include pig head fritti with apple ketchup; house-made ricotta with raw trombetta, zucchini flowers and pangratatto; brown crab cacio e pepe; and rare breed pork chop Milanese with pickled fennel and lemon.