A produce-driven neighbourhood restaurant like Cantinera probably isn’t what comes to mind when you think of BYO.
Chefs Jake Barwood (Brunswick House, Chefs in Schools) and Celia D’Ortiz (The Duke of Cambridge, Carousel) were introduced by a mutual friend. After running into each other at Brockley Market, they decided to work together. Before Cantinera, they launched Codillos, a sandwich pop-up at Brighton restaurant Patio and Brockley wine bar Joyce.
“Jake kept dreaming about opening a restaurant, and I told him ‘You’re crazy!’,” D’Ortiz tells Broadsheet. “I came back from working in Mexico and [Richard Salthouse], who owns Joyce and bottle shop Salthouse Bottles, asked if we wanted to take the space [opposite the shop].”
Cantinera is inspired by D’Ortiz’s Mexican and Spanish heritage and Barwood’s British French style of cooking. The blackboard menu is tight, seasonal and ever-changing – and any food waste is composted in-house.
You can always expect pickles, fermented vegetables and tostadas (crunchy fried corn tortillas) topped with meat, fish or vegetables. “I’m obsessed with tostadas,” D’Ortiz says. “It’s one of those Mexican treats that a lot of people here have never tried.” Another mainstay is the tortilla de patata (Spanish omelette), carried over from Codillos.
“I’m getting really tired of making tortilla de patata," D’Ortiz jokes. "But people love it, and we make it to order, which isn’t common even in Spain."
The rest of the menu features veggie plates and a meat dish, such as merguez sausage with butter beans or a juicy bavette steak. Desserts include a rich chocolate mousse with berries foraged by Barwood and a refreshing gala melon and cucumber sorbet.
Cantinera is currently unlicensed, charging £7 corkage per person for alcohol. The pair is in no rush to change that.
“We consider ourselves affordable, but it’s a little more expensive than the usual around here,” D’Ortiz says. "[BYO] helps some people come [because] they know what they’re going to spend and can bring something from home, making it a bit more affordable.”
“It might not be forever,” adds Barwood, “but I think it’s a nice introduction.”
The restaurant does offer Mexican-inspired non-alcoholic drinks: a salty, lemony Suero (a Mexican electrolyte drink that Barwood says is a “good hangover cure”) and a Michelada, akin to a Bloody Mary.
Cantinera is also walk-in only, which Barwood says helps prioritise the “community of people around Brockley, Nunhead and nearby areas”. It’s very relaxed: pop your name down, wait at a bar nearby or have a drink outside Cantinera.
“[When a] new restaurant comes on the scene, especially when they’re very small, it gets booked for a long time,” he says. “We’d get booked up for three months from people who live all across London, who’ll probably only be able to visit once … and then locals can’t come and eat. After three months, you drop off a bit and people don’t have that affinity with you.”
D’Ortiz and Barwood renovated the bright, simple space with the help of friends and sourced most of the furniture from their community. The exterior is painted butter-yellow, while the candle-lit dining room has hints of burgundy and plenty of greenery and flowers.
“Everything is very much homemade, which is one of the things that we both love about cooking,” says D’Ortiz.
For now, Cantinera is open three days a week, with plans to extend its hours soon.
Cantinera
10 Coulgate St, SE4 2RW
Hours:
Thu 5.30pm–9.30pm
Fri 12.30pm–2.30pm; 5.30pm–9.30pm
Sat 12.30pm–3pm; 5.30pm-9.30pm
