Tiny Leaf vegetarian zero-waste restaurant and juice bar set for Notting Hill
Tiny Leaf, a new vegetarian restaurant billing itself as zero waste and organic, is to open in London's Notting Hill on 28 January.
The four-storey venue on Westbourne Park Road is spearheaded by chef, writer and food activist Justin Horne, along with general manager Jonathan Krauss (formerly of high-profile Marylebone restaurant Chiltern Firehouse) and Alice Gilsenan as marketing director.
The venue will be temporary, pending the search for a permanent location, and take over the former Bumpkin site. It will use surplus food from suppliers to create a daily-changing, vegetarian menu featuring a host of vegetables, along with coconut yoghurt and nut ‘mylks'. Suppliers will include Planet Organic and organic seasonal producer wholesalers Langridge.
The team's ultimate aim is to open a permanent site that will raise awareness of the food waste problem, inspire people to reduce the carbon footprint of their food by eating vegetarian and seasonally, and create a zero waste and zero impact restaurant.
In the meantime, typical dishes will include buckwheat pancake with blueberry compote, coconut yoghurt & bee pollen; courgetti with hemp pesto, toasted almond, and rye wafer with butter bean ragu, tomatoes and homemade paneer; along with desserts such as rhubarb, ginger and carrot crumble; and orange, polenta and chia seed syrup cake.
There will also be a juice bar serving cold-pressed juices, and a botanical cocktail bar with options including drinks created by ‘phytotherapist' and botanist Michael Istead, and cocktail artist Lee Shephard, including the signature cocktail Tiny Leaf, made with organic vodka, apple, cucumber, mint, elderflower and ginger, and served in a plant pot with edible soil.
The site will also feature an events space, which plans to screen food-conscious films and documentaries, plus talks from relevant parties including one on organic farming and soil health from organic pioneer Craig Sams, and another on biodynamic wines from sommelier Tom Harrow.
In addition, 20p per litre from the sale of the site's alkaline bottled water will be donated to water supply charity Whole World Water, and Tiny Leaf will match each £1 voluntary donation to be added to each bill, with the money raised going to Refugee Community Kitchen Calais and the Soil Association.
Co-founder Horne commented: "Vegetarian cuisine is a great medium, I don't think [it's] always given [its] place. There's no reason why you can't make something amazing out of vegetables alone. Essentially we want to educate, inspire and also have some fun in exploring this new approach to food."
The plans come amid a wider debate on waste taking place within the hospitality industry, with industry bodies seeking to impose suggestions to help reduce food waste especially. Similarly, Scotland's Zero Waste programme has continued to gain momentum since its launch in 2010, and is aiming for businesses to see 70% of waste recycled, and just 5% going to landfill, by 2025.
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