Rousset opens London wine shop and cafe

Restaurateur and master sommelier Xavier Rousset MS is to open a wine café with its own basement wine shop in London’s Mayfair next month.

The new Comptoir Café & Wine on Weighhouse Street will be a sister site of Blandford Comptoir in Marylebone, the 40-cover “wine-led” Mediterranean restaurant that Rousset opened last year.

The new café-bar will focus on a rotating range of seasonal dishes and will serve around 30 wines by the glass, including Champagne and sweet wines. In addition, customers can buy wines for the extensive wine list in the basement cellar shop, which can be drunk in the café for a £10 corkage fee.

The wine list, which has been put together by Rousset, will comprise around 1,000 wines from around the world, including around 100 different Champagne, ranging from £13 to £1,500.

Rousset said the range including some “superb” wines, including classic Burgundies to quirky, rare varieties from Sicily. They were, he added “all ready for drinking now, at extremely reasonable prices.”

Others include wines from Canada and Hungary, as well as a range of Sake.

The 700 sq ft wine shop, which has been in planning for six months, includes space for private tastings and events for up to 30 people (or 12 seated).

When Rousset opened Blandford Comptoir last year, he said that he was keen to roll out further sites that had “similarities” to the Marylebone site, but he did not want these to be identical. He also noted that “there will always be a focus on the wine”.

Prior to starting the Blandford Comptoir in Marylebone last year, Rousset worked in a number of Michelin starred restaurants, including Le Laurent in Paris and Villa Belrose in St Tropez, before becoming Chief Sommelier at the Hotel du Vin. He was later appointed Head Sommelier at Raymond Blanc’s Michelin-starred restaurant Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons, but left in 2007 to set up Texture restaurant with business partner Agnar Sverrisson. The venture went on to win a Michelin Star within only three years, and the team also founded the ’28-50’ wine bars in 2010. Rousset announced he was leaving the Michelin-starred Texture 28°-50º restaurant group in May 2015 and last year Rousset opened French restaurant Cabotte on Gresham Street in the city of London as part of a joint-venture with master sommelier Gearoid Devaney, who is a director of Burgundy importer Flint Wines, as well as Blandford Comptoir.