Portuguese wine bar to open in London

Max Graham of Churchill’s Port is to open a Portuguese restaurant and wine bar in Flat Iron Square near London Bridge this September.

Max Graham, photo credit: John Bates Studio

Bar Douro will form part of a food, drink and entertainment project under the arches in Flat Iron Square taking in the Grade II listed Devonshire House.

The venue is inspired by the ale houses and tapas bars dotted around Lisbon and Porto and will serve small plates based on Portuguese home cooking alongside a selection of Ports and Portuguese wines from the country’s key growing regions.

Among the dishes on offer will be smoked sausage croquettes, suckling pig, octopus with sweet potato and favas, fish stew, pork ribs with ruby Port glaze, and milk fed lamb, with traditional custard tarts available for pud.

Manning the stoves will be head chef Tiago Santos. Its décor meanwhile will include Portugal’s famous ‘azulejos’ – blue and white ceramic tiles.

Graham, whose father Johnny founded Churchill’s Port in 1981, tested the water with Churchill’s Port House, an eight-month pop-up wine bar in Soho in 2013.

The aim of the pop-up was to educate consumers about the variety of Port styles on offer, from white and tawny, to ruby, vintage, LBV and Colheita.

The Flat Iron Square project will also include live music venues, a pancake restaurant and a theatre space.

This isn’t the first Portuguese specialist restaurant in London – last year chef Nuno Mendez opened Taberna do Mercado in Spitalfields.