A Review of The Casual Dining Arm of Studio Kitchen, Purveyors of Caravel, first published in Mostly Harmless, ISSUE 165 – October 2022 from www.zz9.org
The Context
I was walking the Hackney section of the Regent’s Canal, doing a bit of research for my book, when signs on a set of black iron access stairs, and another posted on Rosie the canal boat, announced: Studio Kitchen, This Way!
MY BRAIN: Studio Kitchen? WAIT. Does that mean I can get onto the dock on that side of the canal? Maybe peer into Poppy!?
The director and producer team tasked with the 2005 Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Movie used Poppy as office space.
I was curious to see what an office on a canal boat looked like. I wondered if they might still be in there…right now…working on their latest creative endeavors. Until that moment, it had never occurred to me that I might be able to access what appeared to be a private dock.
I paused my research walk to take a photograph and do a little light Googling.
It turned out I could do better than peek surreptitiously into her: Poppy was a venue, offering evening meals as Caravel, newly opened as of March 2022.
The online info thrilled me…but I couldn’t get a table. The new eatery was booked three weeks out. By then I’d be back in the States. However, their website also listed a less-formal eatery called Pontoon, located alongside Poppy, on the Eagle Wharf Marina.
With a reservation at Pontoon made for later that evening, I hoped I could get some close-ups of the famous (to Hitchhiker fans) Poppy, and grill the staff about her history and recent reincarnation.
Then I continued my walk, verifying mileage and content for my book Forty-Two Places: Douglas Adams’ London.
The History
Before 2020, the kitchen and dining space was called The Commissary Bar and Kitchen. It was open to the public but a bit hard to get to. The Commissary also managed catering for Holborn Studios, where sometimes 15 or more photo shoots were going on all at once, resulting in catering for up to 150 people on a daily basis.
With dreams of bringing a new style of food and service to Holborn Studios and the Eagle Wharf community, the Studio Kitchen team (two brothers from a restauranteur family) took over both the public restaurant and catering responsibilities in January of 2020…just before the lockdown.
Pontoon
Your welcome to Studio Kitchen is a gargantuan movie clapper board displaying the drinks menu. A deco-style movie light shines on the chalkboard in another homage to the restaurant’s name. Well-used leather stools and overstuffed sofas furnish the bar area.
Throw pillows and sturdy iron tables create private lounge spaces with ample real estate for entrées, drinks, and a spread of food to share.
The true highlight of my meal was the barbecue bites. They came festooned with green and red peppers that terrified me–then surprised me. The peppers were pickled, not spicy. Instead, they were a bit sweet, and the side of sauce was a very appropriate counterpoint of freshness.
The Gochujang sauce had significant heat; spicy and zesty. A little too much for my taste, but that was okay because the other sauce, which my server Alex described with the mega-compound word “not-your-American-style-ranch” was incredible. The “ranch” was fresh and tangy instead of heavy and cloying, the way I usually find ranch dressing, and the reason I don’t ever order it back home.
Loaded with finely chopped fresh chives and again possibly using buttermilk, this dairy-based sauce balanced the spicy heat nicely. I will return to Pontoon again on my next trip to the UK just for this sauce!
I’m not usually a chicken sandwich fan, but it was what Alex recommended as his favorite thing on the menu. He suggested loading it with chili. And bacon. And cheese.
I figured, why not? (And that was before the passion fruit martini.)
It is odd that the British put fresh “salad” (meaning lettuce or cabbage) into their hot chicken sandwiches. But I’m all for more veggies whenever I can get them. The chicken was gorgeously breaded. From the intensity of flavor, I think it might have been a “smash” style: a thin patty quick-fried first, then perfectly breaded and fried: moist and massively tasty.
The french fries were true American french fries; not chips: thin, square, with pointed tips at both ends. I asked for mine extra-crispy and they were; crunchable golden slivers of happiness.
The other highlight was the passion fruit martini. A little bit unexpected in a typical bar food kind of establishment, but after hearing Fin’s background, it made more sense. The Spiteris absolutely care about flavor, style, and service.
The Ambiance
The background music at Pontoon was instrumental with a really good beat. It changed often enough not to feel monotonous, and not so loud that the book club sitting behind me was having to shout about what they had read.
Stainless steel scaffolds span the main area. I love their exposed industrial lighting aesthetic. They have the good sense to use frosted glass on any naked hanging bulbs, and rope lights under the edge of the bar to provide a soft warm glow in the evening. Skylights and massive windows during the day, plus all kinds of attractive fixtures, provide excellent lighting day or night.
A long bar front (painted a surprising Barbie pink) is partially obscured by the pillars and arches of whitewashed brick. The structure supporting the upstairs kitchen is covered in triangles straight out of the marketing departments of the late 70’s and early 80s.
Multiple areas of the restaurant are equipped with screens and white-painted walls that can be projected on by Hitachi projectors suspended from the scaffolding. The brick arches, giant oven, and substantial chimney in the middle of the main space is a fun reminder that this building began as an ironworks, operating from 1841 to 1866.
The muted colors on the walls are reminiscent of Patrick Nagel prints. Shapes echo the iconic image of David Bowie on the Aladdin Sane album cover, shot by photographer Brian Duffy, a “regular” at Holborn Studios.
Many framed examples of his signed photography are hanging in the side dining room where wooden tables covered with clean brown paper provide an opportunity to escape the chill wind off the canal.
Eat great food and study photographs of famous people, taken by famous artists? Yes, please!
The kitchen is at the top of an industrial metal staircase for a little added drama. The servers balance dishes as they go up and down. Totally worth an extra tip; I got dinner with a side of feats of strength and agility.
Everything about the space feels clean and bright, family-friendly, and a cozy location for meaningful conversations. Canvas rooms with corrugated roofs are set up on the wharf outside, with the same color palette and cheerful lighting.
The menus of both Pontoon and Caravel change seasonally. Daily lunch specials rotate more frequently. In May, Pontoon served cauliflower soup and a ham and cheese Toastie with fries or salad.
Caravel
When lockdown hit, the additional office space on the canal boats emptied out. Holborn Studios’ office staff transitioned to work from home.
Poppy was empty.
The Spiteri brothers saw the unused space and snatched it up. At first, it was an additional socially distanced dining area.
With their hands full re-designing their walk-up service to comply with new social distancing and COVID safety policies, a new menu had to wait for lockdown to be over (just like the rest of us).
In the fall of 2021, the new normal had settled and the Spiteris started eyeing Poppy again as the answer to their goal of providing something a bit fancier than burgers and bar food.
Poppy’s renovation was completed by the family using reclaimed materials whenever possible. The gates separating the kitchen and dining room are wood reclaimed from fixing the pontoon. Fin made the lamps and his sister sewed curtains from scrap fabric.
The decision was made to keep Poppy’s galley intact, allowing guests to smell and glimpse the tantalizing food as it was prepared.
Over the course of three months, Poppy came to be Caravel; a 40-seat fine dining experience.
The creative and inventive Spiteri brothers now serve the foods they dreamed of in the space that also made the Hitchhiker movie dream come true.
Special thanks to Fin Spiteri, the brother on bar and front of the house. He allowed me to interview him while his brother the chef, worked away in the upstairs kitchen.
What do you think?