The Ivy Café
The Ivy – long a louche favourite of London’s bold-faced glitterati, society mavens and pap-shy stars who love the privacy offered by its opaque stained glass windows – has opened an outpost in Marylebone.
Taking over the former space vacated by The Union Café, the small café has been designed by Martin Brudnizki Design Studio almost like a diffusion line in the sense that the DNA of the Soho flagship skates just below the surface: there is the same chummy clubby Art Deco feel thanks to the row of pendant light running down the length of the narrow room, vintage red leather banquettes, cartoon portraits, and geometric marble floor tiles.
The all-day menus are overseen by head chef Sean Burbidge (ex-Pétrus) and cover every gastronomic pit-stop from breakfast (and weekend brunch) through to cream tea and post-prandial cocktails.
On offer is a comprehensive blend of mod-English and Italian- and French-lite – shepherd’s pie, scones and baked rigatoni Provencal mixing it up with ham hock fricassee, Mallaig kipper with parsley butter, and a chocolate bombe drenched with hot salted caramel sauce.
Meanwhile, the antique pewter top bar is a perfect perch for people watching while sipping a London Spritz infused with Earl Grey gin and prosecco, or a lethal elderflower vodka mixed with cucumber and cider sparkle.
INFORMATION
Website
ADDRESS
96 Marylebone Lane
London W1U 2QA
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Daven Wu is the Singapore Editor at Wallpaper*. A former corporate lawyer, he has been covering Singapore and the neighbouring South-East Asian region since 1999, writing extensively about architecture, design, and travel for both the magazine and website. He is also the City Editor for the Phaidon Wallpaper* City Guide to Singapore.
-
This cult Los Angeles pop-up restaurant now has a permanent addressChef Brian Baik’s Corridor 109 makes its permanent debut in Melrose Hill. No surprise, it's now one of the hardest tables in town to book
-
French bistro restaurant Maset channels the ease of the Mediterranean in LondonThis Marylebone restaurant is shaped by the coastal flavours, materials and rhythms of southern France
-
How ethical is Google Street View, asks Jon Rafman in CopenhagenIn 'Report a Concern - the Nine Eyes Archives' at Louisiana Museum of Art, Copenhagen, Jon Rafman considers technology's existential implications
-
French bistro restaurant Maset channels the ease of the Mediterranean in LondonThis Marylebone restaurant is shaped by the coastal flavours, materials and rhythms of southern France
-
Sir Devonshire Square is a new kind of hotel for the City of LondonA Dutch hospitality group makes its London debut with a design-forward hotel offering a lighter, more playful take on the City’s usual formality
-
This sculptural London seafood restaurant was shaped by ‘the emotions of the sea’In Hanover Square, Mazarine pairs a bold, pearlescent interior with modern coastal cuisine led by ‘bistronomy’ pioneer chef Thierry Laborde
-
Montcalm Mayfair opens a new chapter for a once-overlooked London hotelA thoughtful reinvention brings craftsmanship, character and an unexpected sense of warmth to a London hotel that was never previously on the radar
-
Follow the white rabbit to London’s first Korean matcha houseTokkia, which translates to ‘Hey bunny’ in Korean, was designed by Stephenson-Edwards studio to feel like a modern burrow. Take a look inside
-
Poon’s returns in majestic form at Somerset HouseHome-style Chinese cooking refined through generations of the Poon family craft
-
One of London’s favourite coffee shops just opened in Harvey NicholsKuro Coffee’s latest outpost brings its Japanese-inspired design to the London department store
-
Enjoy a Kyoto-inspired menu with London attitude at this new restaurantAki London offers a serene counterpoint to Oxford Circus, where stately interiors and elevated Japanese cooking cross paths