Appalachia

Drawing inspiration from the deep-rooted culinary traditions of the Appalachian Mountains - a rugged, mountainous region stretching from southern New York to northern Mississippi - this backstreet Shoreditch hideaway is the restaurant we didn’t know we needed. Shaped by fire, whole-beast cooking and preservation techniques, head chef Ali Borer’s menu manages to mesh caveman food with counter dining, with remarkable grace.

The restaurant is no more than a small chef’s counter and a handful of window seats, ensuring everyone gets a front-row seat to the action. Borer - who once led the line as head chef of Smoking Goat - finds plenty of time in between blowtorching burgers and scorching sausages to guide us through his smoke-kissed take on Americana cuisine. 

First off the pass are warm madeleines, made with cheddar, jalapeno and cornbread - a comforting triple threat of savoury, spice and stodge, liberally dunked in the US of A's greatest export: ranch dressing. Better yet are beef tartare tostadas, playfully stacked on top of one another and singing with pickled cucumber and fresh lime. 

A mysteriously-labelled ‘tongue and head skewer’ is the sort of dish that’ll either make you run for the hills or sit up and take notice. Thin layers of offal are meticulously sandwiched together into a single meaty cuboid, lacquered with umami oyster sauce and finished with wisps of pork rind. It’s deeply indulgent, highly technical and impossibly delicious - the skewer against which all others should be judged.

There’s no stingy small plates business going on here: a giant bowl of ‘Kilt’ salad fizzes with sour pickles, mustard and miso, offsetting the hearty cheeseburger, which pairs beef chuck with ox heart for a richer flavour, balanced by a sweet wedge of tangy tomato. 

Appalachia is like a social experiment that separates the trend-following foodies from the plate-licking, bone-sucking gourmands. Tomatoes are deep-fried rather than delicately sliced, skewers are strictly offal, and grits and rinds thread through the menu. For some, it could be a bush tucker trial, for others it’s a culinary joyride - and we sit firmly with the latter.

Shoreditch has spent the last decade flirting with just about every regional American food trend imaginable, but Appalachia - the new restaurant opening on Nile Street this summer - might be the first to arrive with cornbread madeleines, miso grits and a soundtrack that probably deserves to be played from a crackling vinyl record rather than an iPhone speaker.

Taking over the former Counter 71 site, this intimate restaurant comes from chef Ryan Sheenan and front-of-house partner Camilla Meshiea, who are swapping the previous tasting-menu minimalism for something moodier, smokier and considerably more bourbon-soaked. The inspiration comes from the Appalachian region of the American South - a mountainous stretch running from Mississippi to New York - though thankfully the restaurant appears less “theme park log cabin” and more low-lit downtown listening bar with excellent flavour combinations.

The tiny chef’s counter remains, where diners will sit directly opposite the kitchen, watching dishes emerge which offer an elevated take on Southern comfort food, focusing on traditional cooking techniques that favour fire and smoke. Though the restaurant isn’t yet open, the taster menu has already been released and shows off a selection of sharing plates that allow you to try a little bit of everything. For example, there’s juicy beef tongue and braised pork skewers, alongside grilled duck heart tacos with house hot sauce, and braised Pinto beans with new season potatoes and summer vegetables. Slightly larger dishes include the half grilled chicken with miso grits and butter sauce, and personally, we’d be up for trying the curry omelette with spiced crab and seaweed beurre blanc.

Appalachia isn't scrimping on dessert, either. For sweets there’s a few options, including the banana pudding choux bun, summer fruit cobbler and Lynchburg lemonade sorbet. While the full interiors are still under wraps, a few sneak peeks have revealed a luxuriously rich colour palette spanning deep marble table tops and verdant, glossy tiling. Low lighting and cosy banquettes gives a date night, cocktail bar feel, complemented by the already well established Lowcountry downstairs.