Last month, the team behind Peckham-based Levan and Bar Levan opened Cassette, their latest project that they describe as being born out of a ‘deep love and connection to French dining culture’.
Cassette marks an important milestone for owners Mark Gurney and Matt Bushnell as they make the move as restaurateurs into central London for the first time. Hitherto to Cassette, the duo had been mainly South London based, with their first project, Salon (now closed), opening in Brixton in partnership with chef Nicholas Balfe. The trio went on to launch Levan, serving contemporary European dishes, inspired by the ‘bistronomy’ movement and their favourite dining spots in Paris, Copenhagen, Barcelona, Stockholm and Berlin, followed by Holm in Somerset, and all-day restaurant Larry’s in Peckham next door to Levan. In 2023 they split, with Balfe taking on Holm and Gurney and Bushell retaining the London venues. Larry’s was later converted in Bar Levan.
With Cassette, the pair have this time narrowed their focus to have a purely Gallic gaze. Cassette serves a menu rooted in French cooking, ‘informed by contemporary Parisian technique’ but still continues Levan’s bistronomy approach in style.
What was behind the decision to have a French focus?
“Over the past few years we’ve been getting more into the French side of things. I’ve gone to Paris for my birthday for the past 10 years and over the past five or six years I’ve made lots of friends over there. When the chance to open a new place arose, Matt and I thought proper French bistro food was what we wanted to do. It’s the style of food I like to eat: simple, three things on a plate. It’s a homage to Paris.
French food is very much in vogue at the moment…
Yes. It’s good and bad because it seems like a place like this is opening every week. For me, French food feels like a bit of a reaction to the sharing plate movement. We stopped doing it at Levan and it crystallised our feeling that sharing is out and eating you own food is back in. Of course you can still share you starters [at Cassette] but I love having my main and a mouthful of someone else’s. I was getting a bit tired of going to restaurants and eating one mouthful of each dish and being a little bit unsatisfied and not getting the full experience. You often have to eat the whole thing to really understand the completeness of a dish.
South London has been your heartland. Why now the move more central?
We love Peckham but the beginning of 2025 there was really challenging financially so we started thinking about the future. The dining scene and socio economics of London were shifting back into central London and working from home was slowly changing with people returning to the office, so it felt like we needed to get into central London.
Was Covent Garden always the first choice?
Our targets were Covent Garden, Soho and Borough. We spent nine months looking at various different places and although there’s an amazing array of stuff available nothing was quite right for us. Matt and I had a checklist – we needed it to have some character, be in a busy place but not on a main street, and have outside space, which is very difficult to find in central London. As our climate begins to change we think outside dining is really important. There’s also a buzz about the area. The new Arcade has just opened and The Devonshire team’s new place will be on the opposite corner to us.
The location you found was a former Grind…
Yes, Matt and I used to meet for coffee there. The building has this amazing history of being a former Victorian stained glass window workshop and it’s opposite a catholic church. It’s the right size for us (46 covers upstairs, 10 downstairs, 24 outside) – we don’t want a 100-cover restaurant, that’s not who we are. It would be disingenuous if we came from Peckham where we have 44 covers and do 100 covers. We wanted to bring a bit of that neighbourhood energy to Covent Garden.
How different will you find Covent Garden to Peckham?
Peckham has got a very different energy and vibrancy; it is a really mixed cultural community. We are right by the train station and there’s a carnival spirit down there sometimes. Levan is a bit destination, people go for celebrations and birthdays and we’ve been there nearly eight years so it feels like it’s part of the community. In Peckham, we have to do a lot of events - they are the lifeblood of Levan because trade is quite up and down. We hope in Covent Garden we have a bit more consistent flow of guests. But we’ll start doing events here if we need to. We also have to approach Covent Garden in a slightly different way because it has a very different demographic with theatregoers, international tourists and an arts crowd around the 180 Strand area. Cassette will need to appeal to lots of different types of people, which I think we’re doing
How so?
We’re being a bit more populist with the menu and the wine list balances more classic wines and safe options such as burgundies and bordeaux with more natural wines for a different crowd.
What’s on the menu?
We’ve gone for simple classic dishes such as fromage de tête with tarragon and wholegrain mustard; a raw beef croustade with comté; Tamworth pork chop with sauce Talleyrand (a French Madeira-based sauce); and coq au vin jaune pie. The pie has the chicken claw sticking out of it which has been quite divisive. A lot of people told us we were glorifying death, but if you’re eating an animal you should understand what’s attached to it, it’s not just a cling-filmed breast in a supermarket. We will also do our take on Pierre Koffmann’s pig’s trotter, but only sporadically when we can get access to the good stuff. We’ll do specials on an irregular basis and shout about them on Instagram. We are also focusing on calvados, which is an unsung hero of France. We do a calvados and tonic instead of a G&T, and there’s the option of having a calvados with your espresso like they do with grappa in Italy.
How have things changed over the decade you’ve run restaurants?
The impact of Covid and people working from home can’t be understated. In early 2025 during the cost of living crisis people were coming in for just a starter and a main to share and two glasses of wine and that really impacted our spend per head. We were like ‘shit, if this carries on we’ll be closed in six months’. Then a real step change came in September 2025, at the turn of Trump and lots of stuff in the news, and people were thinking ‘if the world’s going to shit let’s enjoy ourselves’ and that really made a difference. Matt and I want to position Cassette as good value but also somewhere you can come and celebrate, and that’s the hardest balance to get in any restaurant. We want it to be the place for a weekday set lunch and then to go back to work, or for pre theatre, but also for people to have a full blow out with all the sides and desserts and calvados. We have created a menu that allows you to do that.
What lessons have you learnt along the way?
If we had our time again we’d have opened Cassette in mid October. We have never had so much difficulty getting stuff manufactured and delivered before. The whole of Europe went on holiday in August and downed tools, even mid way through a project. Everything was delayed and it was very stressful getting all our kit on time. What we’ve also learnt is to be agile and to react as quickly as we can - but sensibly - to changing trends and how customers are behaving. Closing Larry’s was the best thing we ever did because it was really difficult. Trying to do all-day dining in Peckham was the stupidest thing we’ve ever done, but you live and learn.