Three Shoreditch restaurants that were busy in the 2000s and early 2010s have all closed. The Rivington Grill on Rivington Street shut in June 2017, according to a spokesperson for its owner, Caprice Holdings, quoted by Eater London. Fifteen, Jamie Oliver’s training restaurant on Westland Place, closed on 21 May 2019, when his UK restaurant group went into administration with the loss of about 1,000 jobs, as the BBC and the Guardian reported at the time. Merchants Tavern on Charlotte Road has also closed. Its chef and co-owner, Neil Borthwick, left in 2018 to cook at the French House in Soho, according to the trade magazine The Caterer.
Made in Shoreditch interviewed chefs from all three kitchens while they were open. Read together, those interviews show what cooking in the neighbourhood looked like before the area’s restaurant scene filled with group-owned openings and food halls. The quotes below are taken word for word from the original interviews, which are linked in full.
The Rivington Grill: British food on a back street
The Rivington opened in 2005 at 28 to 30 Rivington Street. Mark Hix, then executive chef of Caprice Holdings, the group behind the Ivy and J Sheekey, set it up, and Caprice later bought it, according to a 2006 Guardian review. Its menu was seasonal British cooking, served in a white dining room hung with contemporary art.
Simon Wadham was its head chef when Made in Shoreditch spoke to him in October 2011. He had trained in the army and spent ten years working for Oliver Peyton before joining Caprice in 2007. Asked for his signature dish, he said: “King scallops with pumpkin mash, black pudding and bacon. I’m a big fan of back-to-basics British cooking, taking eating out back to its roots, using the best seasonal produce sourced from suppliers around the British Isles.”
He described the restaurant’s approach in one line: “The essence of the Rivington Grill is simplicity.” And asked why he liked working in the area, he answered: “Shoreditch has got everything you want. The young, old, new, and historic. Shoreditch has a real contemporary vibe about it and there is something for everyone. It’s the hub of cool.”
He also named the regulars who kept the dining room busy: “We see a lot of regulars from in and around Shoreditch and Hackney, as well as our regulars from the city.” Read the full Simon Wadham interview.
The building did not stay empty. Blacklock, the chophouse group, opened its Shoreditch restaurant on the same site at 28 to 30 Rivington Street in 2018, and it still trades there.
Fifteen: a restaurant that trained its own cooks
Fifteen opened in 2002 at 15 Westland Place, a side street between Old Street and Hoxton. It trained young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to work in professional kitchens, and when Made in Shoreditch interviewed its executive head chef in 2011, all of its profits went to the Jamie Oliver Foundation.
Andrew Parkinson ran that kitchen. He had trained at Perth College while working at the Gleneagles Hotel. His signature dish at the time was “Roasted scallops wrapped in pancetta with homemade brandade and slow-roasted tomato vinaigrette.” Asked which country had the best cuisine, he said simply: “Has to be Italy.”
He mentioned one job that showed how far the apprentices could travel: “I cooked for the world leaders at No.10 Downing Street in 2009 (the G20 summit with Jamie and a team of Fifteen apprentices and graduates).” On Shoreditch, he said: “It’s obviously a very hip and vibrant area that attracts people from all walks of life that visit the area for great restaurants and bars.” Read the full Andrew Parkinson interview.
By 2015 the kitchen was led by Robbin Holmgren, a Swedish chef who cooked over a wood-fired Josper grill. He told Made in Shoreditch that the apprentices’ graduation was the part of the job that stayed with him: “It is always very emotional when the Apprentices graduate. We spend a lot of time together in the kitchen and it’s great to see them make their own future. I love it when they come back after a few months with their stories about where they are and how Fifteen has helped them get there.”
He also described how close the menu was to Oliver’s own farm: “Jamie has a lovely small farm and this year we have worked close together in what they are putting in the ground for us.” Read the full Robbin Holmgren interview.
Fifteen London closed with the rest of the group in May 2019. The company that ran it, Fifteen Restaurant Limited, was dissolved in August 2021, according to Companies House records.
Merchants Tavern: a chef cooking where he lived
Neil Borthwick, head chef and co-owner of Merchants Tavern, told Made in Shoreditch in 2014 why he had opened it on Charlotte Road: “It’s where I live, and so it makes sense to stick to what you know. Shoreditch has been increasing in popularity for restaurants with a more relaxed atmosphere.”
His menu followed the seasons. “My menu is based on seasonality,” he said. “I like simplicity and I think it is extremely important to use the freshest ingredients at the right time. It’s the reason our menu changes so often.” Read the full Neil Borthwick interview.
What the three kitchens had in common
Asked separately and years apart, the three chefs gave similar answers. Each described simple, seasonal cooking built on good produce. Each said the mix of people in Shoreditch was what made it worth cooking there, from local regulars to diners coming in from the City. And each kitchen sat on a side street rather than a main road: Rivington Street, Westland Place and Charlotte Road.
The closures had different causes. Caprice did not give a reason for closing the Rivington. Fifteen went down with the collapse of Oliver’s UK restaurant business. Borthwick moved on to Soho. What replaced them is a different kind of Shoreditch dining, covered in the guide to the best restaurants in Shoreditch.
Where those chefs’ ideas live on
Several current Shoreditch restaurants are run by chefs and founders Made in Shoreditch has also interviewed. Hieu Bui opened Cây Tre on Old Street in 2003 and later Viet Grill on Kingsland Road, and spoke to the site about Vietnamese cooking in London. Thomas Brooke founded Red Dog Saloon in Hoxton Square in 2011 and talked about building a barbecue business slowly. Shan, founder of Yun Gui Chuan, explained why the Brick Lane noodle shop simmers its broth for eight hours.
For more from the archive, see fifteen years of Made in Shoreditch interviews, and for an evening out after dinner, the Shoreditch nightlife guide.