Having opened Paradise in Soho on the tail finish of 2019, Dom Fernando put Sri Lankan meals on London’s culinary map. His restaurant garnered buzz for its Geoffery Bawa-inspired interiors and ingenious but genuine tackle Southeast Asian delicacies. Now, following renovation, Fernando is about to thrill diners as soon as extra with Paradise 2.0: his restaurant reinvented for the post-pandemic age. ‘The trade has modified,’ says the restauranteur and artistic director. ‘Visitors actually need an expertise, so we determined to take fashionable Sri Lankan meals and design to the subsequent stage.’
Paradise 2.0, London
(Picture credit score: Bhavya Pansari)
Followers of Paradise can be happy to listen to that the unique brutalist concrete partitions and slate-tiled ground stay intact. However there are many new additions too, not least a six-course night menu with pure wine pairings. Showcasing seasonal British and Sri Lankan components, in addition to native cooking methods – resembling clay-pot cooking and bamboo grilling – the plates are spicy, fragrant and considerably shocking. ‘We provide a culinary journey that visitors received’t expertise wherever else,’ says Fernando, who developed the menu with head chef Alfie Bahnan. A working example is the rasam, a Sri Lankan broth historically made with tomato however, at Paradise 2.0, it’s infused with lacto-fermented strawberries.
(Picture credit score: Bhavya Pansari)
When it got here to overhauling the interiors, Fernando teamed up with Dan Preston, the inside designer and maker behind a few of the most talked-about London eating places, together with Mountain, Brat, Kiln and Paradise 1.0. ‘Dan additionally does high-end residential work, which we leaned into for this undertaking, in order that Paradise 2.0 doesn’t really feel like a restaurant,’ says Fernando. ‘We did plenty of analysis into conventional walauwa [villas] in Colombo to create one thing extra intimate and cosy, whereas staying true to our tropical brutalist roots.’
(Picture credit score: Bhavya Pansari)
(Picture credit score: Bhavya Pansari)
The fabric palette, as an illustration, is pure and heat. British oak is especially prevalent, having been utilized by Preston and his group to craft stunning, custom-made picket chairs. The picket tables, completed with a hot-rolled, black-steel high, are additionally bespoke and have built-in cutlery drawers, ‘which provides a layer of sophistication to the visitor’s expertise’, says Fernando. Elsewhere, the unique chrome steel counter has been changed with one constituted of limestone. ‘Not solely is it stunning, nevertheless it has a built-in sink, cabinets and a workstation, so it appears like a stone counter you’d discover in a house kitchen,’ says Fernando. A glass vase crammed with vibrant birds of paradise flowers is a crowning glory.
Different homely touches embrace candles that give the area an atmospheric glow, plum leather-based banquettes and picket cabinets, that are lined with a thoughtfully curated edit of books and magazines. As Fernando explains, the thought was to create a library of types, with a selected deal with Sri Lankan authors, artists and designers: ‘It retains issues related and makes the area really feel lived in.’
(Picture credit score: Bhavya Pansari)
(Picture credit score: Bhavya Pansari)
Paradise 2.0 is situated at 61 Rupert Avenue, London, paradisesoho.com
Supply: Wallpaper
