D&D London has revealed details of the German Gymnasium – a collection of cafés, restaurants and bars that will open in the King’s Cross site in November.
The site will be a 447-cover complex comprising a ground floor grand café, an outdoor terrace, a restaurant, bars and private dining spaces.
The interior of the building, located between King’s Cross Station and St Pancras International, has been designed by Conran and Partners and described as a “contemporary take on the grand cafes and brasseries of Central Europe”.
German-born executive chef, Bjoern Wassmuth, formerly kitchen director at Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten in Hamburg, will create a “broad-ranging grand café and brasserie menus featuring some classic Mittel-European dishes as a nod to the site’s German heritage”.
The dining areas will combine one of Kings Cross’ largest al fresco terraces, a patisserie counter, an all-day grand café serving breakfast through to dinner, a first-floor restaurant and the Meister Bar. The Head Sommelier Virgile Degrez has curated a list showcasing niche German, Austrian and Hungarian labels as well as a selection of bottles from Eastern Europe. Fred Tartas will be managing the bar, designing a cocktail menu, including the multi-sensory concept, Le Whaf - a special carafe that vaporises cocktails turning them into dramatic, low-calorie clouds. General Manager Sam Bernard, currently at D&D London’s Skylon, will oversee the German Gymnasium as a whole.
David Loewi, managing director of D&D London, said: “While developing the food and drink concepts, we have respected the history of the site. Germany is well established for its wine yet its cuisine is often underrepresented in London. We aim to help change this and Bjoern’s menus will feature some delicious dishes from Germany and its surrounding countries.”
Des Gunewardena, chairman and chief executive of D&D London, said: “We’ve watched and admired King’s Cross coming to life in recent years and are so excited to finally becoming part of it this November. When I first saw the German Gymnasium building stripped out, revealing the interior with its 57 ft floor-to-ceiling heights, I had the same spine tingling feeling I had when I first saw Quaglino’s as a hole in the ground 25 years ago. We love this building and its history. It deserves an exciting life in the 21st century and we are going to do our best to give it that”.
