Sally Abé describes the opening of her debut restaurant in Hackney as being 20 years in the making. When she finally throws open the doors at Teal by Sally Abé, which occupies the bijou site on Hackney’s Wilton Way that was once home to Drew Snaith and Hannah Kowalski’s restaurant Sesta and before that Pidgin, later this month she will have finally realised a dream that has been percolating for much of her cheffing career.
Called Teal by Sally Abé, and named after her favourite game bird, the restaurant might be extremely compact - Abé describes it as a little British bistro - but the investment is significant. Abé says she has spent the past five years seeking a backer for her project, and on three occasions thought she had succeeded but couldn’t get the deal over the line for various reasons. As a result, she is now going it alone.
“The site came along and I looked at the numbers and realised I could do it without investment,” she says. “That’s why it’s so incredibly personal because this is literally my life savings going into the restaurant, so it’s got to work.”
From The Harwood to Hackney
I meet Abé a month before launch in a small coffee shop in Fulham, round the corner from where she lives and just down the road from The Harwood Arms, Brett Graham and Mike Robinson’s Michelin-starred pub where she served as head chef from 2017 to 2021.
Abé’s career also includes time at Graham’s two Michelin-starred Notting Hill restaurant The Ledbury, working with Phil Howard at Elystan Street in Chelsea and at The Pem at Conrad London St James in Westminster, which she helped launch and put her name to. Her most recent role was with The Public House Group at its The Bull Charlbury in Oxfordshire.
Given that her CV mostly takes in London’s and the UK’s more well-heeled postcodes, the Hackney location of her debut restaurant stands out. Financial restrictions aside, Abé says that despite her West London-leaning experience she has always been drawn not just to the area but specifically the road on which the site is located. She even put an offer in at a site over the road about two years ago, and while that subsequently fell through her love for the location was confirmed.
My goal was to open my own restaurant before my 40th birthday. I’m doing it by the skin of my teeth
“I had fallen in love with Wilton Way at the time, it’s such a lovely, beautiful street and there’s a real community neighbourhood feel to it,” she says. “When this site came up it was as if something was calling me back here.”
The site became available in October last year after Snaith and Kowalski called time on their restaurant just over a year after its launch, blaming the tough economic environment. Times have hardly improved in the interim period, but Abé shrugs off any idea that this doesn’t augur well for her project. “Pidgin was there for nine years, so it did well,” she says. “The time has come to breathe some fresh air into it.”
“Now it feels right. Everything that happened has just fallen into place and no massive barriers were put in my way. It’s scary and exhilarating at the same time.”
A bijou bistro
Teal has 26 covers, with a further 16 to be made available outside in the summer. The room will have a newly created bar that has six seats, with five two tops, a four top and a six top. Abé says she had to completely strip out the kitchen to see if there were any electrical or rodent issues but is using as much of the existing kit, save the charcoal grill that has been replaced with an induction hob.
“I’m probably the only chef in the UK that doesn’t want to cook over an open fire,” she says, adding that additional equipment she has bought includes a tabletop ice cream machine to make Teal’s ‘penny licks’ (more on them later).
In addition, Abé, who stands at five foot two, says she’s had to have all the stainless-steel benches lowered. “I did it so that I don’t have to wear high heels in the kitchen,” she laughs. “At The Ledbury I used to have a wooden block to stand on to do the butchery.”
The interiors come courtesy of her interior designer sister, with a sage green colour palette and panelling on the walls. When we meet, Abé had recently been to Kempton Market and bought a load of artwork including old lithographs of eggs and ducks as well as one of a teal. “They are hard to find,” she says of the tiny bird. “Mallards are much easier.”
British cuisine with an elegant touch
The game bird won’t just feature on the walls and in the restaurant’s name - when October comes round it will also appear on the menu. “Teal is my favourite game bird,” says Abé. “We used to do cook it a lot at The Harwood Arms and The Ledbury. I’ve had that name in my head for a restaurant since 2018.”
The restaurant’s menu will be tight, with four snacks and then four dishes each for starters, mains and desserts. Options will include snacks such as angels on horseback; and devils on horseback; and starters such as Dorset crab royale with peas and lovage, a dish from her time at The Harwood Arms. Mains, meanwhile, will include haunch of deer with pickled walnuts and cavolo nero; and Cornish mussels, Jersey Royals, cauliflower and sea kale, while a raspberry marshmallow teacake, as well as a marmalade ice cream sandwich, another dish from Abé’s cooking canon, will feature on the dessert menu.
“It’s nice to revisit dishes and freshen them up or add or take something away. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with doing dishes you’ve done before,” says Abé. “If they work and people like them, then why not?”
The food will be refined because that’s how I know how to cook, but it will still be hearty. You’re not going to leave hungry
Overall, Teal draws on elements of historical British cuisine with a ‘modern, elegant touch’. “It’s what interests me the most and bringing that to life is really important to me because British food is often seen as just fish and chips and pies and there’s so much more to it than that.
“It’s important as a chef to cook what makes you excited. I’ve cooked fine dining for a large part of my career, and I’ve learnt a phenomenal amount from that but if I put my hand on my heart, super fine dining is not what I want to do. I want to cook food that makes your heart happy.”
Abé’s fine dining background will inevitably shine through in places, she acknowledges, but more subtly than ever before. “The Pem was probably more fine dining than I wanted. Once I got into it, I started to realise I didn’t want to do fine dining anymore,” she continues.
“Naturally the food will be refined because that’s how I know how to cook, but it will still be hearty. You’re not going to leave hungry.”
Abé’s last position at The Bull Charlbury has been influential. Not only did the pub and dining room’s pared back menu reinforce the type of cooking she wanted to pursue, but it was also where she met its GM Abe Drewry, who has since become a co-owner of Teal (the ownership is split 80:20 in Abé’s favour). Drewry will be responsible for Teal’s constantly evolving wine list, working with limited cases that will be refreshed throughout the season, with a focus on champagne and French still wine.
“The food at The Bull is very pared back, it has a maximum of three things on the plate and that did make me learn how to cook like that. I’ve never been someone to put 10, 12 or 15 elements on a plate, but The Bull stripped it back even more so and made me evaluate what’s important, what needs to be there and what doesn’t.”
The menu will change often, with Abé saying having creative freedom was the main driver behind wanting her own place. “I had a lot of free rein at The Pem, the menu was all my creation, but it was still within the boundaries of the Hilton and its guidelines. Being in a hotel came with certain restrictions.
“The biggest thing for me is that I’m finally the one who gets to make all the decisions, it’s something that I’ve been wanting for ages. There’s no one to tell me what to put on the menu, saying you can’t afford this or you’ve got to spend the money here. I get to be in charge.”
Loving the process
Twenty years in the making, has she enjoyed the process of bringing her dreams to life as much as she thought she would? “I’m enjoying all of it,” is the quick response. “There have been days where I’ve thought ‘oh my god, not this’ but I like being able to tick things off the list - sign the waste contract, tell the Food Standards Agency you’re opening a restaurant, get a PR team in place, launch the website.”
Everything has been planned out with meticulous detail and to work within the budget restraints. Teal has just six employees alongside Abé: three front of house, two chefs and a kitchen porter to keep staff costs in check. “Because it’s so small I’ll have the head space to do everything, including HR and social media. Especially social media, because people like when it’s done by the person actually running the restaurant.”
The small team is also a priority for Abé, whose book A Woman’s Place in the Kitchen not only detailed the tough conditions she faced at the hands of men in the workplace, but which is also a manifesto for change in the industry.
“Looking after the staff is the most important thing for me,” she insists. “If you’ve got a happy team then they naturally make your guests happy.
“I want to make the guest feel as though they are in their own living room. Brett [Graham] has always been amazing at making guests feel welcome and going that extra mile. The nice thing about having such a small restaurant is that we can touch all those tables and make people feel special. I want it to be a lovely community place rather than dump myself into Hackney; I want to embed myself into the community.”
The biggest thing for me is that I’m finally the one who gets to make all the decisions
To this end, Abé says she is looking at ways to give back to the local community, including potentially giving over the restaurant space to community projects on the days it is not open. This is also forged the idea of the penny lick. The ice cream, a homage to the affordable nineteenth century confection that predates the ice cream cone, will be sold for just £1 at Teal, with proceeds donated to Hackney Food Bank.
“It’s important as a chef of a posh restaurant to realise that food touches everybody’s lives and it needs to be a full circle - I want to be able to give back. I don’t just want to take all this produce and all this money through the tills when there are people struggling and not do anything. We need to be able to help where we can.”
That said, getting money through the tills is now a priority for Abé as the opening date for Teal edges ever closer. “I’m running out of money, so I need to get it open,” she admits.
“I really wanted to open before the Easter holidays. My goal was to open my own restaurant before my 40th birthday, which is in August. I’m doing it by the skin of my teeth.”
