Spain is the birthplace of small plates.
Tapas was a thing well before sharing dishes became a default restaurant concept, and while restaurants across our capital have taken the idea, sautéd it, fried it, seared it, flambéd it and run with it, arguably nothing will ever quite hit the same way a perfectly executed, oozing-in-the-middle tortilla and a cold cerveza does.
So if, like us, you love Spanish food and leisurely, wine-fuelled dinners, then you’ll be as excited to know Nieves Barragán Mohacho – head chef & founder of the Michelin Starred Sabor, and also the executive chef at Barrafina when it won its Star – has announced she’s opening a second site in Shoreditch this summer called Legado. Arriba!
The new restaurant, Legado, translated to ‘legacy’, draws from Nieves’ personal experiences growing up in the Basque region of Spain and learning from an early age about the abundant produce and dishes specific to the area. At Legado, the offering promises to be a full-blown fiesta of Spain’s diverse food cultures. It’s also set to be Nieve’s ‘largest project to date’, so we’re imagining wood-fired grills, a sweeping bar and generous douses of Spanish design to transform the place into a typical taberna.
On the menu, there’ll be nods to the lively tabancos in Cádiz and Jerez and it’ll borrow from Castilla y León’s whole-animal cookery. It’ll feature Galician-style seafood cookery, Asturias’s hearty stews and of course, the arms-spread-wide embrace of Spanish hospitality.
This second site comes seven years after Nieves (along with her business partner José Etura) opened the now much-loved and Michelin-starred Sabor. And are we surprised the team have chosen Shoreditch as their new stomping ground? Not in the slightest. Legado will be yet another headline act adding to the slew of new openings in the area this year. Incidentally it’ll also neighbour the new Singburi in Montacute Yards.
While Sabor set a high bar for Spanish food in the city, we’re pretty certain Legado will raise it even higher.
NOTE: Legado is set to open in Shoreditch this summer. We’ll be back then with the full scoop. In the meantime, you can keep an eye on their website.
Legado | Montacute Yards, Shoreditch High St, London E1 6HU
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