The former operators of Trezini’s and Zigolini’s restaurants in Australia have relocated to London to launch new all day dining and grab and go café concept Abuelo, MCA has learnt.
Abeulo, which means grandfather in Spanish, will launch at the end of January on 26 Southampton Street in Covent Garden, a small 15-cover A1 site.
It will be coffee-led, with an emphasis on architecture and design, while the food offer will combine the operators’ Australian and Argentina backgrounds.
Lynette de le Vega, who runs de le Vega Architects with her husband Alejandro, is launching the café with her daughter Cloe.
The family team are also looking for a site to roast their own coffee, as well as further sites to operate all day dining brands which are still under developments.
Lynette de le Vega told MCA: “We want to open different places wherever we can and we are already looking for other locations. We want to be a group rather than a chain.
“We are working on new concepts, with a tight food menu. Each one will be slightly different.
“We will always do really good coffee, which is hard to get in London.”
During the day Abuelo will serve Antipodean style breakfast and brunch, sandwiches, salad bowls including salmon ceviche and speciality teas.
The evening menu includes sharing platters of cold cuts and pickles, empanadas, pasta and cocktails.
It will also sell products from the family’s health and nutrition company Passion Projects.
De le Vega said the focus would be on casual cafes rather than more formal restaurants dining.
She added: “We may take bigger premises – we’ve done much bigger. This is the smallest thing we’ve ever done. But we wanted to get our feet on the ground and we liked the location in Covent Garden, which was like gold to find. We go with what inspires us really, we see something and try and work with it.
“We are working with people who have a feeling for cooking, rather than fancy high-end chefs. We’ve done that. We want to provide food that’s really homely, accessible and satisfying and goes with the environment were trying to create with the architecture.
“It’s inviting and not stuffy or overly self-consciously cool. It’s just beautiful architecture in a warm and inviting space.
“It should look really different to what you’ve seen before.”
