Every now and then, a restaurant opens with the unmistakable air of being an instant institution.
On the night Broadsheet visited Cafe Clement, three days after it opened, we saw Nick Grimshaw, Stanley Tucci and Louise Redknapp, who was apparently already on her second visit.
But even without the celebrity bingo, it’s clear this dining room holds something special. The all-day restaurant is part of St Clement, a new hotel in Temple by the founder of Soho House, Nick Jones (who stepped away from the business in 2022) and his business partner Mark Wadhwa. The various elements of St Clement – including hotel rooms, a health club and a Florence Knight restaurant – are being introduced gradually ahead of its full opening in September, but Cafe Clement is already open seven days a week, serving diners from breakfast until dinner. It’s a vibrating nook of a room, with all the allure of a smaller, brighter Dean Street Townhouse in its heyday.
Jones, who has reportedly been working on the project for almost three years, asked head chef Danny Bohan to join two years ago. He arrived after more than two decades at the River Cafe, most recently as head chef, and his cooking at Cafe Clement is inspired by his 25 years spent working with the likes of Rowley Leigh at Kensington Place, and the River Cafe’s Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers.
Bohan describes Cafe Clement’s objective as “affordable luxury”, complete with table linen, caviar and a £275 bottle of Dom Perignon, but also a £28 two-course set menu and house wine on tap for £8 a glass.
“We’re a restaurant that wants to be approachable for everyone,” he says. “If you’re walking off the street and want to enjoy a bowl of pasta at the bar, you can. The main thing is not to overcharge.”
The broadly European menu is extensive, broken up into snacks, shellfish, starters, pasta and risotto, casseroles, salads, mains and plates from the grill, with many dishes available as half portions. Bohan and Jones developed it by eating together in London, Paris, New York and California.
The first plate they completed was the open lobster omelette starring poached Scottish lobster folded through eggs, then finished with crème fraîche, tarragon and a light lobster bisque. “Nick is obsessed with eggs, and I’m not so obsessed with eggs,” Bohan says. “We’ve come on this little journey together, and I love an egg now. I love an open omelette.”
Meanwhile, the bouncy cheese soufflé is inspired by the Le Gavroche’s famous Soufflé Suissesse. Bohan’s version, made with gruyère and nutmeg, is “a little bit easier to make”, but just as effective.
Elsewhere, bayonne ham with charentais melon, steak tartare, gascon onion soup, and a toulouse sausage and cannellini bean stew sit alongside comté, crème fraîche and ricotta ravioli, and tagliarini with slow-cooked veal ragù. These dishes are unlikely to stay put, though. “[The menu] will change throughout the weeks and the months coming,” Bohan says. “It’s quite fun.”
There’s an extensive wine list, and a cocktail list that includes a white-peach Bellini, a Naked and Famous and the Clementini – a mixture of citrus-infused vodka, champagne, oyster vermouth and olive oil.
The dining room was designed by James Thurstan Waterworth, who first worked with Jones on Soho House Miami, and later ran the company’s London interior design team. “The big thing was how to create something special without it feeling anything like [Soho House],” Waterworth tells Broadsheet. “There wasn’t really a theme in mind,” he continues. “There wasn’t any anchoring, aside from what we wanted it to feel like in terms of atmosphere.”
He estimates the team produced around 100 different iterations of the room. “Nick has always been amazing at having theatre,” he says. “There are all these subtle things which people don’t necessarily notice until it’s wrong, and I think that’s the key.”
The finished restaurant is divided into a succession of small, low-lit spaces, with a long open kitchen and bar providing a bustling focal point. Leather banquettes sit beside a mix of vintage chairs and bespoke pieces by Rupert Bevan.
Underfoot, the rippled burgundy and pale stone floor follows a sinuous pattern derived from old maps of the site and the historic course of the Thames. Elsewhere, the leather was deliberately selected to be marked and changed. Waterworth says Jones likes materials that acquire “more energy and life” as they get “fucked up”.
Some tables are dressed with white linen cloths while others have been left bare, the result of a long-running discussion about whether tablecloths belonged in the room at all. Lampshades were handmade to prevent the interior feeling too uniform.
For Bohan, all of this just contributes to one thing: “We want people to feel relaxed and at home as soon as they walk through the door.” When it comes to service, “There’s no hovering around the table,” he says. “If you want to ask questions, ask questions. If you don’t, then just create a little bubble and enjoy yourselves.”
Cafe Clement
Ground Floor, St Clement, 12 Temple Place, WC2R 2NF
Hours:
Mon to Sat 7am–11pm
Sun 7am–9pm
