Tommy Heaney to launch casual restaurant Uisce in Cardiff
Chef Tommy Heaney is set to launch casual restaurant Uisce next door to his eponymous restaurant in Pontcanna, Cardiff.
The former-deli, which hosted Heaney's as a pop-up while the neighbouring site was remodelled into the restaurant's permanent home, will serve a casual, all day offering. Uisce (pronounced Ish-Ka) is due to open by the end of the month.
Breakfasts will include local produce along with Irish black pudding and an extensive list of fresh juices, while the lunch menu is set to be more hearty dishes including home-made bagels with salt-cured Welsh beef and pulled Welsh lamb crumpets with salsa verde. Heaney told The Caterer: "It's something a little bit different, with the sort of things that I like to eat for lunch."
In the evening, the 25-cover site will again serve as the casual counterpart to Heaney's, turning into a wine bar with a range of Spanish and British charcuterie. Heaney added: "I think that British charcuterie is really coming onto the scene at the minute and that's something that we want to support. We're working with a lot of suppliers at the moment to come up with a really nice charcuterie list, and then also we'll be able to do our own charcuterie as well."
The chef, who launched his first solo restaurant last year with the help of a Kickstarter campaign, said fitting within the local ecosystem was a key part of deciding on the concept.
He said: "We thought of maybe putting a chefs table in there, and played about with the idea of putting a separate kitchen in, but we don't want to take away from what we do at Heaney's - this a completely separate concept. Also, we didn't want to compete with anyone, we didn't want to be stealing trade from anyone because Pontcanna is such a lovely community with a lot of independent restaurants and businesses. The last thing we want to be doing is fighting people for customers."