Drew Snaith and Hannah Kowalski unveil further details for Sesta

Set to open in September, Sesta is billed as ‘a neighbourhood spot serving an à la carte menu championing British seasonal ingredients’.

It comes after Pidgin founders James Ramsden and Sam Herlihy announced plans earlier this week to close their restaurant​​, with its final service set to take place on 18 August.

Sesta will be the first restaurant from Snaith and Kowalski, who first worked together at Brunswick House, and then again at Pidgin where Snaith is currently head chef.

The pair will run the restaurant alongside the current Pidgin back and front of house teams, including sous chef Ben Ing and general manager Majalis Lundstrom Celedon.

Snaith’s menu will embrace his love of live fire cooking and combine creative takes on British and European dishes with nods to the chef’s time travelling in Southeast Asia with his father.

Much of the restaurant’s produce will come from Shrub, which connect restaurants with Sussex farms, with much of the menu expected to change seasonally.

Dishes set to feature at launch include Doddington cheese scone topped with Braybrooke rarebit; king oyster pâté de Campa with cornichons, miso and pumpkin seed cracker; and cured and smoked mutton bacon ribs with fermented garlic and Thai chilli honey and coriander mustard.

The menu will also offer a large sharing cut of meat available such as slow-grilled stuffed duck with Morteau sausage, beer braised spinach, duck fat potatoes, liver parfait, and Mirabelle and tamarind chutney.

A list of natural wines available by the glass or bottle has been created by Kowalski, with a keen focus on French wines and wider Europe.

There will also be a range of cocktails created by Celedon that will feature house-made spirits such as a blackberry liqueur with foraged blackberries, coriander seeds, juniper and long pepper.

The restaurant will hold 26 covers with plans to introduce counter dining later in the year, and feature dark walnut wood table tops, a deep blue colour palette with flecks of gold, and a rotating selection of art from local artists.