Stevie Parle finds temporary home for Joy while search continues for permanent site

Chef-restaurateur Stevie Parle has found a temporary home for his Joy concept in London’s Marylebone while on the hunt for a permanent site.

Restaurant, retail space and music venue pop-up Joy, co-founded by Parle and designer Tom Dixon, opened at Portobello Dock last summer but was forced to close in June this year to make way for another operator.

The concept reopened last week at 94 Marylebone High Street as a plant shop and 20-cover café and is set to host weekly supper clubs. The site was formerly an LK Bennett. It will not be a permanent home for Joy and is only expected to inhabit the space "for the next few months".

The cafe and shop are open 10am to 7pm every day and serving a short, seasonal menu including Acton burrata, slow cooked peppers and tomato; aubergine caponata; salade niçoise; ajo blanco (a chilled almond soup) with sherry vinegar, cherries and fennel flowers; and Dorset clams cooked in fino sherry with guanciale and chickpeas. There is also cherry pie with clotted cream and canelé for desserts. Almost all of the vegetable-focussed cafe menu will be available to takeaway.

Parle said: “Whilst we all miss W10 and we hope to return west again at some point, it’s super exciting to have a beautiful space in thriving Marylebone Village to continue our experiments in community retail, explore more our love of horticulture and house plants, and have a base to gear up for a big Joy in another amazing space we haven’t yet found”.

Parle also owns London pasta brand Pastaio, which has restaurants in Soho and at Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd's Bush.