Cafe Tramp 361 Green Lanes, Harringay
Cafe Tramp owner Haldun Ozdemir has kept us all on the edge of our seats for the best part of two years. Some people even doubted that it would ever open, but all of us have been watching developments with great hopes of things to come.
Believe it or not, the opening day is almost upon us! After an invite only launch event on Monday, Haldun and the team will open their doors to the public on Tuesday next week.
The work Haldun has put into the fabric of this venue is staggering. Every part is hand-crafted, very often from painstakingly picked architectural salvage items. The ceiling is salvage from a burnt-out pub on the Edgware Road. Tiling in the loos was uncovered and saved from a large house being demolished just off the Seven Sisters Road. The sinks are decorated Victorian gems. Everywhere you look is a feast for the eyes. And that's just the venue.
It seems like we're in for a treat with the food as well. Dinner will be served seven days a week with brunch at the weekends. Although I've yet to sample the full menu, I was invited to a tasting where chef Tushar Sakpal made a range of dishes and showed his skills. I was impressed. Here's a sample from the main menu that will be available from next week:
Starters
Wild mushroom & chorizo croquettes
Octopus, red wine, capers & Dill Aioli
Prawn, ricotta cheese ravioi with tarragon
Seabass carpaccio
Mussels in wine tomato emulsion and sourdough
Soup
Tramp Bouillabaisse
Potato & leek soup with caramelized onion and parley drizzle
Salad
Buffallo mozzarella, slow cooked squash with almond chips, fennel green leaves
Baby gem salad with shallots, thyme and parsley
Main
Seabass with sauce vierge & root vegetables
Duck breast with carrots & citrus star anise sauce
Beef steak with salsa verde
Langoustine with parsley, mint, yuzu drizzle
Asparagus langoustine risotto, tomato petals
Dessert
Tarte tartin
Fig crumble with vanilla ice cream
And to cap this, Haldun has an ace barman in the team who will make you any cocktail you choose!
It will be a week or two before the upstairs space opens whilst planning is finalised, but that's a great space too.
All the very best of luck the the Cafe Tramp Crew.
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Believe it not, I've been so busy over the past couple of weeks that I haven't been yet (Sorry Haldun!). The food I had at the tasting was very good. So I must say that I will go with high expectations.
I really do hope it succeeds. One restaurant really can change everything. A recent article in Newsweek, Denmark's Restaurants Benefit From 'Noma Effect', told the story of the huge changes wrought by the runaway success of the Noma restaurant in Copenhagen:
Copenhagen has been a place of foodie pilgrimage for several years. Ranked best restaurant in the world four times, chef René Redzepi’s Noma, with its exquisite tasting menu featuring reindeer lichen, mahogany clams and wood sorrel, established a style of cooking based on local ingredients that quickly spread to many restaurants there. Several of those, like Relæ, Amass and Bror, have developed international reputations, and these days a full third of all tourists who visit Copenhagen come with plans to dine at a wish-list restaurant. “The food revolution of Copenhagen has completely changed the Danish economy,” says Kasper Fogh Hansen, director of communications for the Food Organization of Denmark. “Denmark has lost 186,000 private-sector jobs since 2008. The only area in which we’ve had large-scale job creation is restaurants.”
All the desserts are £8 on the menu in the window -which to me seems very steep. But I am keen to try the place soon.
Glad to see Tramps are retaining, from their previous more carnal incarnation, the brothel pink & scarlet decor in their upstairs space . Recalling my visits there in the late 1980s-early 1990s, I see the menu has continued to tempt us with its ever popular items: Chorizo Coquettes, Octopus Capers, the two demure sisters Parley & Yuzu Drizzle (Oh, I'll never forget Yuzu!), the slightly immature Tomato Petals, and the ever-tempting Tarte Tartin. The Price-list, too, seems largely unchanged since my last visit. But surely the mysteriously named Tomato Emulsion would prefer to splash herself across the ceiling of that upper space? And, in keeping with Green Lanes' new tradition of double naming every new place that opens, surely Tramps & Tarts would be the obvious double entendre to build the future while honouring the past?
The Octopus Capers was (and probably still is) a 4some Specialty of the House. Please do try it at least once.
Eddie (OAE), I assume you ate all 6 arms & 2 legs of said octopus.
My Octopus Capers was nicely executed and ably assisted by a vivacious Aioli. I seem to remember a rather perky Viognier was also involved.
I'm happy to give this new Tramp a firm "thumbs up", and already saving up for my next visit...
Well, it's nice that it's finally open. But Haldun, prices that exceed Crouch End in Haringey Green Lanes? If you were Noma or similar it would still be the wrong price in the wrong place. I have a friend who runs a restaurant in St James and his prices are better than yours. I know his quality matches his prices so I will check out the menu with you when it comes down to a level that can justify and sustain your business. We all want you to succeed because the place looks brilliant. But survival at this level of pricing seems unlikely.
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