In this week’s visit to an in-theatre restaurant, Caroline Bishop finds a chef going to great lengths to match his food to the show at the Young Vic’s Cut Bar.
The Cut Bar, The Young Vic
66 The Cut, Waterloo
Currently playing: The Glass Menagerie, from 11 November
Why go?
With the Old Vic down the road, the National Theatre a stone’s throw away and numerous fringe venues dotted in and around Waterloo’s railway arches, The Cut has become a second Soho – Woho, if you will. And staking its claim as Woho’s funkiest theatre is the Young Vic, which sprawls along the road halfway to Southwark tube. While the theatre serves up a mix of contemporary classics, new plays and innovations – one play involved flooding the stage with water, another took place in a shipping container on the street outside – the venue’s spacious foyer delivers The Cut Bar, a restaurant-come-bar-come-café that rivals the numerous other food outlets along the road. Such is the restaurant’s presence that those blind to the show posters outside may be forgiven for not knowing that this is a theatre at all…
What’s the deal?
Open for breakfast right through to evening dinner, The Cut Bar has an extensive but flexible food offering that ranges from bacon butties and pancakes in the morning to light lunches and appetiser plates, through to bar snacks, burgers (all under £10) and main dishes (£9 to £17). There’s no set pre-theatre menu, because there’s no need, says German-born head chef Marco Jerrentrup. “Everything is designed to be as fast as we can humanly push it out,” he says. “Our prices, for the quality I’m buying, are very keen.” So basically take your pick: come for a quick bite before a show or linger over a starter, main and chocolate bourbon tart with mint cream (the house speciality, £3.50) for pud. It would be rude not to.
Can I order pie with that?
Funny you should ask. Now on the menu to tie in with forthcoming family show My Dad’s A Birdman is the aptly titled My Dad’s A Birdman Pie, though thankfully the filling is chicken and smoked duck, not dad. Accompanied by a sweet apple and celeriac coleslaw and grainy mustard, this chunky pie is more than filling enough for lunch in itself, though the menu bills it as an appetiser.
Jerrentrup’s dedication to tying the food to the current theatrical offering is obvious. When I visit he is busy mining his creative juices to come up with more Birdman-themed dishes; he has already recreated spiders out of battered soft shell crabs and seems delighted by the humble Garibaldi biscuit’s ability to mimic squashed flies (no, I haven’t seen the show yet either, but I am assured of the relevance). Over the 10 years that Jerrentrup and general manager Nic Outzen have been in charge of The Cut Bar there have been ample opportunities for themed dishes. Palestinian play My Name Is Yusuf And This Is My Brother spawned a chicken burger with middle eastern spice blend Za’atar, which Jerrentrup imports from Palestine; In The Red And Brown Water, set in New Orleans, inspired the Rockefella burger, after New Orleans dish Oysters Rockefella. The burger’s rare breed beef pattie is topped with a smoked oyster in spinach, with a kick of Tabasco offsetting the sweetness.
Recent show Faust, staged by Icelandic company Vesturport, spurred Jerrentrup to investigate their native food, coming up with mussels in an Icelandic curry sauce – surprisingly mild despite its vivid yellow hue. “I don’t have the facilities for curing rotten shark and I don’t have the customers for eating sheep’s eyeballs, but I did discover that an Iceland curry has been very popular for the last 50 years,” explains Jerruntrup. “Interestingly the cast of Faust haven’t touched it. They like slightly more Englishy things.”
But if the mussels catch on with non-Icelandic visitors, they may well become permanent. Both the chicken burger and the Rockefella burger have become staples on the menu: “We sell hundreds a month and we are known for them,” says Jerruntrup of the latter.
With or without theatre?
A casual, funky atmosphere during the day time gives way to a rather happening vibe in the evenings, particularly pre-show, meaning the Young Vic works as a catch-up-over-coffee venue just as much as a dining experience. Turning the food out fast means the kitchen can feed up to 140 covers on an average lunch, and up to 200 when the lovely outdoor terrace – a definite USP in summer – is open upstairs. The rush starts at 17:30, and such is The Cut Bar’s appeal to non-theatregoers that Jerruntrup says the place doesn’t quieten down much when the show goes up. “Mid to end week, it’s continuous.” So to get your hands on Jerruntrup’s mussels on a weekend, book ahead.
Who’s that you say?
Celeb spotters may enjoy the idea that Kevin Spacey, he of the Old Vic down the road, may pop in while you’re munching on your saffron risotto with pistachio dust (another popular staple). “He has his birthday parties up here,” says the chef. Jerruntrup hopes that, like Spacey, The Cut Bar’s relaxed atmosphere and lack of pretension brings other repeat customers. “It’s meant to be accessible, it’s meant to be welcoming, it’s not meant to intimidate,” he says of the menu. “If anything I would prefer people to think nothing of it when they sat down and then to come back because they were quietly impressed, without being able to put their finger on why.”
Peckish? Visit The Cut Bar website.
CB