Chef Adam Handling to open his largest site yet
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| Hospitality Today | Summer 2018
Chef Adam Handling to open his largest site yet
This month( July), chef Adam Handling( right) is moving his award-winning first restaurant The Frog E1 to a new, larger site at 45-47 Hoxton Square. The building, which sits on the corner joining Hoxton Square, Rufus Street, and Old Street, will be home to the newly named The Frog Hoxton as well as a new Bean & Wheat, Adam’ s sustainable coffee shop and deli, and a brand-new bar concept, Iron Stag.
Handling commented:“ This is my biggest venture yet and it’ s a very personal project for me. I’ ve learned so much from past ventures and whilst I’ m proud of them all, I’ ve delegated too much of the design concepts to outside companies. This time, I’ ve taken on the design of everything myself.
“ The Frog E1 was originally supposed to be a test project on a temporary basis, but it became so successful we kept extending the lease. Now, we want to give it a permanent home to give it the revamp it needs.
“ When we first opened Frog E1( below), it was just me a couple of my chefs painting the walls ourselves and putting on the doorknobs( backwards!) – we were so proud of it when we were finished, and I want to be just as proud of this new site knowing that we’ ve done as much as we can ourselves.
“ E1 was my first independent restaurant, and its been a great testing ground for what we do best. I want to take everything that people love about it and are familiar with, but slightly elevate the offering, and make it even better.”
Opening at the end of July, the three individual venues will have their own separate entrances on three different streets to ensure that each experience is distinct. Adam will be overseeing all operations at the site, alongside newlyappointed Executive Chef Daniel Watkins who will have responsibility for the food offering across the three venues. Working with Adam on the beverage offering for the group will be renowned bartenders Rich Woods and Matt Whiley. The Frog E1’ s current Head Chef Jamie Park, will maintain his role as Head Chef at The Frog Hoxton, and the rest of the restaurant team will be moving to the new site too.