“When we saw the space in Somerset House, we were in love,” Imad Alarnab tells Broadsheet. “Even when it was empty and not in the best shape, we fell in love with it.”
This month that spot becomes Aram – a cafe, deli and events space from Alarnab, the founder of Imad’s Syrian Kitchen in Kingly Court, in collaboration with business partners Michalis Ntais and Christos Georgogiannopoulos. Set within one of the city’s landmark cultural buildings, Aram is a slower, more casual sibling to Alarnab’s Soho kitchen. “We wanted to do something more friendly than Imad even,” he says. “Something a little bit faster, affordable, nice and quick at the same time.”
You enter via a deli counter stocked with dates, olive oil, pomegranate molasses – “a few things that really mean a lot to Mediterranean cuisine”, Alarnab says. Then you walk through a salad bar with offerings such as mujadara: lentils and rice with radish, cucumber and pomegranate seeds, seasoned with cumin, coriander and mint, and topped with fried onions. As for sweets, there are za’atar croissants, cheese pastries and cakes to have with Syrian or Greek coffee.
There are two main dining rooms, where you’ll find dishes like adas, a soup made with red lentils, pumpkin and crispy pumpkin seeds. A fourth space will come later: Salamlik, a private room for supper clubs, charity events and community gatherings. In Syria, Alarnab says, “Salamlik used to be the guest room in our houses. It was the VIP guest room. In the palaces in Turkey, this room was forbidden for kids to go in. It’s for the high-end guests when they come to our houses.”
At Aram, that traditionally exclusive space has been reimagined as a place to foster connection. “We want to do events, daily if we can,” he says. “Gatherings, charity events, birthday parties – you can name it.”
Community is central to the concept. “Somehow at Imad’s, because it’s always busy, we had to slow down our charity work for the last five months,” he says. “I miss it. This is a big part of me.”
Aram will be working with charities from Syria – Alarnab himself fled Damascus as a refugee during the Syrian civil war – and the UK. “We have this amazing team in Syria that we’ve worked with since the beginning of the war,” he says. “And here, there are a lot of charities I love – [refugee aid and advocacy NGO] Choose Love and young groups that support the next generation to find careers and education.”
The interior is intentionally soft and calming. “We used kind colours – olive colour, light beige, off-white, a very dark raspberry,” he says. “The lighting is very natural … I wanted everyone to feel relaxed.” Even the chairs are unusually comfy. “Usually in restaurants we don’t use extra-comfortable seating because you don’t want people to stay forever,” he says. “But with Aram, I wanted it to feel that way. I want people to work from there, have their meetings, and feel more than welcome to stay. I wanted this to be a space to gather.”
Aram
South wing (ground floor) Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 1LA
020 7845 4618
Hours:
Mon to Sun 8am–4pm
