It's the find of the year: a Middle Eastern cafe from an Israeli couple big on intense flavours and brilliant cakes. And it could so easily have been a kebab shop
The winner of our newcomer of the year award almost never happened. "It was meant to be a kebab shop in Brixton," says Itamar Srulovich, one half of the Israeli husband and wife team behind Honey & Co, the tiny Middle Eastern cafe on London's Warren Street. He looks around the small, white-walled dining room. "This is all a big mistake." His wife, Sarit Packer, agrees. "We have become known for our cakes but even those were a mistake," she says. "We realised there were lots of commuters passing by, so we put things in the window hoping they'd come in."
Let us offer up a prayer of thanks, then, to the gods of happy accidents. In a restaurant world dominated by big ticket launches, Honey & Co is a breath of fresh air. At its heart are the flavours of Israel and the Middle East where Itamar and Sarit grew up and started cooking professionally. It's about quince salads with mint, honeyed hazelnuts, chilli and fresh curd cheese, deep intense bowls of lamb shawarma on crispy pitta bread or chicken tagine with chestnuts, raisins and date molasses. Most of all there are Sarit's cakes, including the Fitzrovia bun, their pistachio and cherry take on the curls of the Chelsea bun. The critics, including this one, have all swooned and it has quickly developed a huge fan base.
Itamar and Sarit, a glorious double act who finish each other's sentences, met working in an Italian restaurant in Tel Aviv. Eventually they decided to travel the world but only got as far as London where, exhausted by the effort of finding a flat, they decided to stay. Sarit worked at the Michelin-starred Orrery as a pastry chef, Itamar at the Oxo Tower. Later they both found their way to the empire of Yotam Ottolenghi: Itamar as head chef in the Islington deli restaurant, and Sarit as the executive pastry chef for the group before opening Ottolenghi's more upscale restaurant Nopi.
'Ottolenghi was a chance to get to know customers,' Itamar says. Sarit nods. 'In kitchens you are secluded but at Ottolenghi we were able to talk to people and get to know them.' The food they cooked there, they say, wandered far and wide across the world. The food at Honey & Co is, according to Sarit, "just what we cook at home". The decision to set up on their own was a long term ambition, which became longer and longer as they searched for the right spot. 'We were exhausted from hunting for a site when we walked in here. It didn't look promising. The walls were painted orange and there was a big deli fridge, but we realised it had a good vibe.' As to the name, "we just wanted something associated with sugar," says Itamar. So is he also involved in the cake side of the business? Sarit snorts with laughter: "No! He has only ever made one cake. But he is a big inspiration for our cakes. He wakes up hungry." Itamar confirms this is the case. "I wake up wanting things and she has to make them."
Mostly what you get from Itamar and Sarit is a sense of the extreme pleasure they take in what they do. 'We've been chefs for 15 years,' says Sarit. 'To get to a point where you are able to cook your own food and people enjoy it is terrific.' As to the newcomer award it is by turns both "exciting" (Sarit) and "unbelievable" (Itamar). Not that they have time to dwell on such things. A recent bidding war led to a two-book publishing deal. And they have other plans. "We still want to open another restaurant but we only want to do things that are fun," says Itamar. And Sarit finishes his sentence. "We still want to do our kebab shop."
Honey & Co, 25a Warren Street, London W1T 5LZ; 020 7388 6175