The Sign of The Don opens in the city of London this November
The founders of London's Bleeding Heart and The Don restaurants, Robyn and Robert Wilson, launch their latest venture, The Sign of the Don, in St Swithins Lane, EC4 close to Bank Station on November 3. The new bistro and bar is adjacent to The Don Restaurant, on the site of the original Sandeman Port and Sherry Cellars. Sandeman bottled its eponymous products there for over 200 years until it was converted by the Wilsons 13 years ago into a restaurant that became one of the City's most sought after fine dining destinations.
Like Bleeding Heart, which the Wilsons opened more than 30 years ago in Holborn's historic Bleeding Heart Yard, The Don's clientele has a strong corporate bias. With the launch of the more informal Sign of the Don next door, they aim to attract a new generation of diners and drinkers. The menu will offer good value modern European cuisine alongside an impressive array of accessible fine wines.
Founder Robyn Wilson comments, "With a less structured food offering, a contemporary ambience and a huge range of wines by the glass we will be talking to the diner with less time and less money to spend than our traditional City white-table cloth clientele.”
The opening of The Sign of the Don re-unites chef James Walker and head of operations Giuseppe de Wilde who worked together for seven years at Le Pont de La Tour. Walker, who trained at The Ritz and spent a year in Paris at Alain Senderains, has created a menu of modern British dishes with an occasional nod to the sites' Spanish and Portuguese heritage. Bar food will include a Ham croquetta, whose recipe was provided by George Sandeman's Spanish mother and a Mallorcan manchego and Sobrasada toastie. The bistro menu starters include a Confit duck Scotch egg garnished with Sandeman port jelly, while main courses feature King Prawns with chilli and Fino sherry, a 12-hour Confit suckling pig with grape mustard and black pudding and a Whole roasted chicken stuffed with Bellota Sobrasada on purple potato bread, from Bleeding Heart's own bakery. The dessert menu will boast an Olorosso sherry trifle, a traditional Portuguese custard tart, a Rum Baba with a choice of vintage Rums, and a simple home-made vanilla ice-cream liberally doused with Pedro Ximenez sherry.
The décor of the new establishment also emphasises The Sign of the Don’s Iberian heritage. The bar is carved from a solid slab of cork, from the Portuguese cork producers Amorim, its surface from port-imbued chestnut reclaimed from old Sandeman Port vats. Guests in the basement bistro will be seated on banquettes crafted from reclaimed Sandeman Port casks, under dramatic sculptures created from the iron hoops of ancient Sandeman barrels. A Portuguese cork floor will complement the historic brickwork in the ancient vaults that lead to the entry to a medieval vault which Robert Wilson claims is the most stunning working wine cellar in the country. From 1798 when the Sandemans began maturing their Sherries and ports therein, The Vault stretched down to Cannon Street to link with a Roman cellar that ran to the Thames.
In keeping with The Don and the Bleeding Heart restaurants, wine will be a focus at The Sign of the Don. Robert has hand-picked 30 wines, many from his private cellar, which will be available by the glass via a state of the art wine preservation system. The changing selection will regularly feature a number of Spanish and Portuguese wines, as well as options from the Wilson’s award-winning vineyard, Trinity Hill, in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, and some great vintages of the European classics. Diners can select their drinks via an interactive system, where details about the wines, the winery and the winemaker are displayed on wall-mounted LCD screens, and can be ordered at the touch of a button. The cocktail menu will include classic drinks made from craft gin and vodka as well as signature Sherry and Port cocktails. Craft beer will be supplied by Adnams of Suffolk and in a nod to Robert Wilson's Scottish forebears there will be an extensive range of single malt whiskies supplied by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society.
The Sign of the Don opens this November offering casual dining and proper drinking in a location steeped in history. Conveniently positioned next to Bank tube station and just 15 minutes from the West End by tube or taxi, The Sign of the Don makes for the perfect meeting spot within the Square Mile.
For more information, visit thedonrestaurant.com.