At Pompette, co-founder Jake Maskall has a small but mighty ambition: “We want diners to leave happier than they came in,” he tells Broadsheet.
The tiny new restaurant opened in August on Middle Lane in Hornsey, between Crouch End and Alexandra Palace. It replaces Through the Woods, the tasting-menu restaurant founded by Maskall’s co-founder Steve Williams and chef Chris Slaughter in 2018. When Slaughter was “poached by the corporate world”, Maskall and Williams decided the space was too special to abandon. Together with new head chef Ed Hardy Perkins, they have turned it into Pompette.
The name, which is used to describe the jolly feeling of having had two drinks in French, sums up the warm, welcoming atmosphere. The cosseting 18-seat room is all oxblood walls, cafe curtains and flickering candlelight, while the open kitchen is close enough for Perkins to join in on conversations across the dining room.
“It’s sort of in between a restaurant and a dinner party,” Maskall says. It’s open for dinner four nights a week, from Wednesday to Saturday, and guests are served a three-course menu for £50, but there’s also a £60 menu five-course at later sittings on Fridays and Saturdays. “People love it because they don’t have to make any decisions,” Maskall says. “There’s no food envy. In life, I think there are too many options anyway, so we’re just trying to keep it simple and nice.”
The short, structured menu means that Perkins can keep waste low and make full use of produce they get from suppliers Flourish and Taste Tradition. “We can be really dialled in on what we’re cooking at that moment,” he says. “It keeps everything really sharp [and] ultra-seasonal, and means everyone is having a consistent experience.”
Perkins hopes his modern British cooking is interesting, but never fussy for the sake of it. “There are good techniques and bits and bobs in the background, but nothing that you’re going to come away from feeling like you’ve been through an ordeal of a chef’s ego.” Maskall is less modest: “Three courses for 50 quid in London is pretty much unheard of to this standard.”
The menu is already changing regularly, but so far the “tomato tonnato” dish has seen the chef transform tomato trimmings into a dashi that’s then used to intensify the flavour of the fruit itself. Meanwhile, for a celeriac au poivre, the vegetable is cured in rice koji for two days, then roasted and served with green peppercorn sauce and more shards of crisp celeriac.
The dry-aged Longhorn beef steak served with brown-butter ratte potatoes is likely to survive multiple reshuffles. “It costs us a fortune,” Maskall says. “But it’s a great product and people seem to love it.” Vegetarian mains are also available. For pudding, at the time of writing, there’s chocolate mousse with toasted buckwheat, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.
The house cocktail is the aptly named Pompette 75, made with fermented kumquat vodka, sugar syrup and sparkling wine. Otherwise, there are French 75s, Gimlets and Old Fashioneds, with Martinis set to arrive once the new restaurant is all settled in.
The wine list focuses on biodynamic bottles – though not particularly funky stuff. Two orange wines have made the menu, but Maskall, who admits he tends to “turn my nose up” at particularly challenging wine, promises that they’re both approachable. There are chilled reds for warmer evenings, plus organic champagne and a biodynamic jurançon for pudding. A wine pairing will be available soon, too.
For the trio of founders, music is a big part of the experience. Maskall spent weeks putting together a playlist, which features everything from Dolly Parton’s Mule Skinner Blues and The Meters’s Cissy Strut to Cymande’s Bra, and is proud to have caught diners Shazaming songs already.
“It’s not just the food, it’s everything,” says Maskall. “We want everyone to be able to experience all of the things we love at the highest level but a very small 18-seat restaurant.”
Pompette
212 Middle Lane, N8 7LA
Hours:
Wed to Sat 5pm–11pm
