Yet another new launch has been Coin Laundry – a new bar and restaurant which is set to add a fun new dimension to Clerkenwell’s culinary hotspot, Exmouth market.
Teaming Chicken Kievs with Black Forest Trifle and SodaStream cocktails with vintage pinball machines, Coin Laundry is already serving up retro British comfort food in laid back surroundings from morning to late night.
Coin Laundry is a new venture from ULG, which runs a collection of restaurants and bars dotted around North, Central and West London (Ask for Janice, Central & Co, Alice House).
Designed by Head Chef Nik Prescot, the menu at Coin Laundry looks to the 70s and 80s for inspiration to create dishes that offer a modern take on old-school British comfort food.
Designed to be relaxed, accessible and non-prescriptive, the menu is split into Morning, All Day and Bar snacks, allowing guests to pick and choose and share dishes with their table.
The morning menu offers everything from a dirty baps to fruit salads, whilst the all day menu features dishes your mother might have made as a treat. Featuring the likes of Prawn Cocktail, Barnsley Lamb Chops, Summer Pudding and Trifle, these retro dinner party favourites have been brought back to life in contemporary form. Whilst still true to the classics, they are teeming with creative elements and utilise quality, seasonal and local produce from Neal’s Yard cheese to beef from Wells Farm in Tunbridge Wells.
A Coin Laundry Chicken Kiev
The signature dish at Coin Laundry is the humble 1970s favourite – the Chicken Kiev – made modern with hand foraged wild garlic and a secret bread-crumb blend. A “Kiev Counter” counts down the number of breaded cutlets left in the kitchen. Elsewhere on the menu, Rabbit Balti Pie and Lamb Faggots cater for the more adventurous diner.
Following suit, the cocktail list features modern takes on retro classics such as the Grasshopper and the Snowball. A sodastream creates a selection of bubbly cocktails and fizzy soft drinks.
Spread over two floors, the design of Coin Laundry’s interior has revealed and restored some of the original pub features including beautiful decorative internal and exterior tiling. Wooden floors, comfy couches and simple homely designs are combined with playful touches such as kitsch tableware and a vintage 80s pinball machine to finish the look.
Open all day, Coin Laundry is already becoming a local hangout for the area, catering for everything from coffee meetings, to informal lunches, after-work cocktails and lively dinners with friends.
The basement space will emulate the feel of a retro common room, offering a selection of board games to while away the hours, and hosting a regular programme of events from book clubs to club nights and pop-up shops.
