Zoe and Layo Paskin to open the Barbary Next Door

This October, Layo and Zoe Paskin will open the Barbary Next Door, a ‘little sister’ site adjacent to the original Barbary in London’s Covent Garden.

The restaurant will be situated in Neal’s Yard courtyard in the site that previously housed Jacob the Angel, which will be relocating. Barbary Next Door will be a relaxed neighbourhood restaurant and wine bar with a menu that takes its cues from Moorish Spain and North Africa.

The Barbary’s head chef Daniel Alt will be at the helm of the kitchen, while a wine list focusing on Spanish, French and Moroccan bottles will be overseen by wine director and sommelier Honey Spencer.

Breakfast will consist of an assortment of sweet North African pastries including ktefa, brick pastry layered with crème anglaise; pumpkin bread; and maaqooda, a ‘Moroccan tortilla’. To drink, there will be cortado coffees, pomegranate juice and almond milkshakes, while cocktails will include a Kir royale and the Barbary bloody Mary.

For lunch and dinner, there will be snacks of Moroccan olives and candied peanuts as well as a selection of breads, including frena, a fluffy pita-style bread topped with salty anchovies, and a new Barbary bread with a dips and salads, including zaaluk; matbucha, a thick tomato sauce; tirshi, a Tunisian pumpkin salad; and fava beans with chopped onion and egg.

Lighter dishes will include a blood orange and grapefruit salad with fennel and tarragon; mackerel fricassee; raw sea bass with cherry coriander salad and lime yogurt; and oysters served with harissa oil.

Larger dishes to share will include chicken pastilla, a chicken filo pie dusted with cinnamon and icing sugar; tagines with oxtail, vegetable or chicken; and whole red mullets marinated in chermoula with preserved lemon and cumin. For dessert, there will be a choice of sfenj, a Maghrebi doughnut; marzipan cigars; or hashpot, a pistachio crème diplomat.

The wine list will focus on organic picks from the warmer Old World regions, including Guerrouaine Blanc 'Les Trois Domaines' 2018, a Sauvignon Blanc from Morocco’s first controlled appellation; Bodegas Ameztoi’s Txakoli Rosado 2020, a rosé wine made with indigenous grapes from the Basque country; and Le Syrault 2018, from Syrah and Cinsault grapes grown on the slopes of the Roussillon in south-east France.

Interiors, designed by Gundry & Drucker, will take their cues from backstreet Andalusian bars, Casablancan 20th century design and Moroccan courtyards.

Zoe Paskin said: “The Barbary Next Door was initially our neighbourhood delivery service during lockdown; now that everything has reopened, we’re bringing that welcome sense of familiarity to Neal’s Yard with our new restaurant and wine bar.”

Layo Paskin added: “The Barbary Next Door will certainly reference some of the food and design elements that the Barbary has become known for, but it will be a new experience. It’s a relaxed spot where you can pop by for a coffee, chilled beer or glass of wine, perch at the bar for a quick bite or settle in for the evening with friends.”

Photo: Georgia Rudd