Harts Group, the restaurant group behind Barrafina, Quo Vadis and El Pastor, is opening two restaurants and a wine bar at the new Coal Drops Yard retail quarter in King’s Cross.
Led by Sam and James Hart and Crispin Somerville, the restaurateurs are seeking to raise £750,000 to fund a new Barrafina site, which will have 34 covers with 60 on the terrace, and a private dining room accommodating 20.
They are also opening Casa Pastor, a larger version of Borough’s El Pastor, with 80 covers inside and 80 on the terrace, and a new wine bar, The Drop, which will have 55 covers inside and 24 outside.
A former Victorian coal store, Coal Drops Yard has been redeveloped by Heatherwick Studio, with brick viaducts, ironwork and cobbled streets, opening as a whole in autumn 2018.
Sam Hart said: “This is an incredibly exciting project for Harts Group. When we saw the site plans we immediately fell in love with Coal Drops and since then we have been relentlessly planning how to create amazing places specific to the area. We are progressing these with enthusiasm and look forward to opening in October.”
Jeremy Hall, project director at Argent, said: “The quarter will now play host to one of London’s best culinary offerings, with King’s Cross as a whole now boasting a restaurant line-up to rival Soho and Shoreditch. Coal Drops Yard will be lively both through the day and late into the evening, a real destination for shoppers and foodies alike.”
