Big Easy Bar.B.Q & Crabshack

King’s Road institution Big Easy Bar.B.Q & Crabshack will open a new restaurant in the Covent Garden area next February, providing authentic, American fresh-smoked Bar.B.Q seafood, cocktails and drinks set to live music each night.

The new venture on Maiden Lane aims to be a more serious evolution of its Chelsea counterpart, with a more urban interior and a stellar team working throughout. Executive chef Kenny Callaghan, best known as the former chef partner of New York’s Blue Smoke restaurant, will be in the kitchen, while Pete Daversa (Hill County Barbecue Market) takes the coveted and key role of Pit Master.

The menu will be based around the finest Bar.B.Q pork and beef cuts, rare-breed British steaks and fresh local seafood. Carefully sourced beef, including Wagyu and USDA, and traditional-breed pork will be showcased together with Big Easy’s famous premium fresh lobsters. The lobsters are sourced all year round from Nova Scotia for their consistency, flavour and quality. A specially designed 1500kg lobster tank will be located onsite to house almost 2,000 live lobsters with sizes ranging from one to ten pounds, and the specials board will offer up a variety of feasts on a daily basis.

 

Big Easy Covent Garden are also throwing down the gauntlet drinks-wise, with a nine metre bar on the ground floor boasting over 500 bottles of various spirits including domestic and imported premium and American whiskeys. Purpose-built cocktail machines will dispense frozen Margaritas and other popular cocktails such as the Manhattan and the Old Fashioned. The bar menu will also list ‘Boozy Juices’ and alcoholic milkshakes as well as a selection of craft beers.

Situated in a former electrical power station built in 1883, the interior of Big Easy Covent Garden honours its original heritage, retaining many original features such as exposed copper conduits, brickwork, steel and concrete girders and timber beams. Industrial lighting is juxtaposed with signature Big Easy style: neon lobsters, Americana kitsch and nautical touches to add to the charm. The design has been overseen by industry heavyweights Macaulay Sinclair.

Set over three floors, the lower ground floor houses the nine metre theatre-style kitchen, with two large Argentinian-style parilla charcoal grills as well as a huge wood burning oven and a rotisserie spit that will roast whole hogs. A dedicated Bar.B.Q pit area will house two wood burning smokers imported from Texas where meats will be freshly smoked on the premises using a variety of woods for different flavours.

Big Easy founder, Paul Corrett, comments: “As London’s love of Bar.B.Q, lobsters and steaks continues, I am absolutely thrilled to offer the evolution of the Big Easy to Covent Garden. No-one in London is cooking with wood and charcoal in such an unprecedented way.

“Fresh Bar.B.Q straight from the smoker is the holy grail for Bar.B.Q aficionados and we are aiming to provide local residents, workers and visitors alike, with the most comprehensive genuine, quality US style Bar.B.Q and seafood dining experience in the UK.

“This will truly be a return to extravagant social dining of a bygone age, with great food, drinks and music, in a relaxed, vibrant and unforgettable setting.”