Lyle’s owners to open wine bar and bakery

In what is set to be a growing trend this year, the owners of Michelin-starred Shoreditch restaurant Lyle’s are to open a bakery that doubles as a wine bar.

James Lowe of Lyle’s is opening a bakery and wine bar called Flor this year

As reported by Eater, Lyle’s head chef James Lowe and general manager John Ogier will open Flor on Bedale Street next to Borough Market this spring.

Like Jolene in Newington Green, Flor will serve as both a bakery and wine bar, proving one of the keys to surviving as a restaurateur in our current cutthroat climate is by diversifying your offer and creating venues that cater to around the clock dining.

In this vein, Flor will serve pastries in the morning, sandwiches at lunch and flatbreads at dinner. All of the bread and pastries are made in-house from British wheat milled at Lyle’s and can be bought to take away.

All of the produce at Flor, including the wine, will come from “agriculturally responsible locations”, with Lowe using many of the same suppliers as Lyle’s.

“We like to think of Flor as the little sister of Lyle’s inspired by the buvettes of Paris – a place we would want to go after work or on a day off. It will be a small place with a big personality,” Lowe told Eater.

“The food will be different from Lyle’s but still coming from the same common-sense philosophy and love of good ingredients,” he added.

Flor will serve lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday, and brunch on Saturday. Like Lyle’s, Flor is backed by Gymkhana owners, JKS Restaurants.

Championing British grown ingredients, Lyle’s opened in Shoreditch in 2014 and has fast become one of the brightest lights in London’s seasonally led casual fine dining scene, alongside the likes of The Clove Club.

In 2016 it won a Michelin star and came 38^th in last year’s World’s 50 Best Restaurants list.