It started the way many contemporary hospitality projects do: roaming supper clubs. “We were cooking 10-course dinners on two panini presses and a broken stove,” George Ignarski tells Broadsheet. “But it made the idea of working for ourselves way more achievable.”
Ignarski’s day job at the time was junior sous chef at St John Marylebone. He and Sigi von Erlach (Quality Chop House, Rochelle Canteen) waited for the right moment to start something of their own – until von Erlach found a home at his local boozer that happened to have an empty kitchen.
North Nineteen is a family-run pub, minutes from Upper Holloway station. Landlord Tony Cullen and his family have served north London locals for 18 years now, and felt the one thing missing was an in-house team of chefs. “We have so many people ordering [Yard Sale] pizza each night,” Cullen says.
So from Sunday June 7, North Nineteen will bid farewell to pizza deliveries to make way for a team of fine dining alumni who first met working at Jackson Boxer’s Orasay in Notting Hill (now the site of Boxer’s restaurant Dove) years ago.
The final piece of the band is former pastry chef, Kate Maddox, who’s fresh from Chantelle Nicholson’s Mayfair restaurant Apricity, and has quickly become the steady hand behind the scenes of the new company, called Warm Regards.
Now, von Erlach, Ignarski and Maddox can get to work making the food they want to, without the gamble of a long lease or an expensive fit-out.
The team points to the success of Four Legs at The Plimsoll, a concept by chefs Ed McIlroy and Jamie Allan, which originally started as a pop-up at the Compton Arms before the duo opened their own Finsbury Park pub. “They've proved there's demand in this area for a classic pub that caters to drinkers but also to people that want good technical food,” von Erlach says.
And while the group may be swapping white tablecloths for wax paper and red plastic baskets, its culinary pedigree remains intact, with suppliers like Farmer Tom Jones to provide the same Hertfordshire-reared meat served at St John.
The challenge, they say, is balancing neighbourhood expectations with the free rein of trying whatever ideas they want.
“On one side, you've got sports events where hundreds of people are coming through no matter what the food is like,” von Erlach says. “Then on the other side, you've got a demographic of people ready to try adventurous stuff.”
The result is a menu that swings between punchy flavour combinations and comforting pub fare. Debut snacks include pork scratchings with whipped cod's roe and marmalade; haddock tacos topped with pineapple salsa; glazed chicken liver skewers; and a coveted fermented potato bread. This one plugs the Yard Sale gap as something that sits somewhere between a taco and a pizza – a flatbread piled with confit carnitas, green herbs and chilli salsa.
The sporting calendar has also shaped some of the team's thinking. For big match days, particularly the World Cup, they will rotate a series of themed ice lollies inspired by the competing nations.
As for the rest of the summer treats, Cullen’s favourite is the lime and white miso granita that melts over chunks of watermelon and ribbons of celery, leaving slurpy goodness in its wake. A dessert, Maddox adds, that would do well with a tipple of something stronger.
Warm Regards opens at North Nineteen, 194 Sussex Way, N19 4HZ on Sunday June 7.
