Former Fenn head chef to open Shoreditch restaurant and bar

Former Fenn head chef Joe Laker is opening his first solo venture, a chef’s table restaurant called Counter 71 in London’s Shoreditch this June, as well as Lowcountry, an American South-inspired cocktail bar.

The restaurant will serve only 16 guests per night from a raised marble countertop at 71 Nile Street, formerly the Duke of Wellington pub. The seasonal tasting menu on offer is described as a “culinary ode to the British Isles” with dishes set to be on the opening menu including: langoustine broth and pickled carrot; brown crab donut and scallop roe; eel tart, fried seaweed and caviar; cheese and Marmite scone and Poacher custard; and chocolate parfait, yogurt sorbet and buckwheat crumb.

Laker was head chef at Fenn in Fulham for two years until it closed in 2022 due to staff shortages. Before that he was head chef at Anglo in Farringdon, a junior sous chef at St Leonards in Shoreditch, and a chef de partie at Roots in York.

Working alongside Laker will be sous chef Michael Miles, while Harry Cooper, former general manager of Fenn, will head up front of house. Cooper will also curate the wine list, leaning towards New World wines and varieties from lesser-known producers.

Lowcountry, named after the area which spans from mid-coast Georgia to North Carolina, famed for its bourbon and rye, will be headed up by Savannah-born mixologist Ryan Sheehan and focus on American whiskey. It will seat 28 covers and the drinks menu will offer ‘signature’, ‘historical’ and ‘classic’ cocktails, using surplus produce from the Counter 71 kitchen and seasonal ingredients.

To accompany the cocktails, Laker, who spent part of his childhood in both Alabama and South Carolina, has developed a menu of bite-sized dishes influenced by the region, adapted for British ingredients, such as pimento cheese rarebit, shrimp and grits prawn toast, and fried okra.

‘Signature’ cocktails will focus on techniques like fat-washing, maceration, gelling and infusions, including a ‘hot tomato’, made by combining tomato water, jalapeno-infused tequila and basil oil with salt; a 'fat-fashioned' with bacon-washed bourbon, maple syrup and Creole bitters; as well as a blueberry Manhattan using blueberry-infused whiskey and sweet and dry vermouth.

The ‘historical’ cocktail list will focus on reviving cocktails like the milk punch, Jack rose and 1888 martini, while the ‘classics’ will showcase negronis, margaritas and gimlets. The Lowcountry house cocktail will be a traditional boilermaker, a beer with a shot of bourbon or rye on the side. A flight of five martinis will be available to order for two people.

Photo: Rebecca Dickson