Appalachia, a restaurant inspired by cooking from the mountains of eastern USA, launches in Shoreditch next week – with former Smoking Goat head chef Ali Borer running the open kitchen.
Set in a converted traditional pub near Old Street with a smart marble chef’s counter, Appalachia has replaced Counter 71, where chef Joe Laker served a highly rated British tasting menu until earlier this year.
Appropriately for a venture that celebrates the high country of the American hinterland, Appalachia is upstairs from Lowcountry, a basement cocktail and bourbon bar inspired by coastal Georgia and South Carolina, which is run by Savannah-born Ryan Sheehan, co-owner with Camilla Meshiea.
Ali, who has just completed a residency at Bottle & Rye in Brixton, describes himself as an intuitive chef who likes to “mix up everything“. He enjoys the close contact of a chef’s counter setting: “The reason I love to cook is to see the enjoyment on people’s faces. Cooking for people is such a personal thing, the joy I get from guests enjoying my food is a high for me, just knowing all the hard work is worth while.”
His approach is said to draw from ‘years of Thai-influenced live-fire cooking, layered with smoke, brightness, heat and restraint, now reimagined through the spirit of the American high country. Every plate begins with flavour.’
Appalachia, which straddles a dozen states from New York in the north to Alabama in the south, is famous as one of the poorest regions of the United States, whose hillbilly culture produced the great Dolly Parton – and US vice president JD Vance, although critics point out that he grew up in the Ohio rustbelt. The traditional food is homespun, including a lot of pork and anything that could be hunted in the mountain forests: deer, rabbit and squirrel.
Highlights of Ali’s menu are expected to include pork chop with collard greens; grilled poussin with grits; country fried rabbit, and barbecued whole quail with blue cheese slaw. He may also be tempted to head down from the mountains with his signature crab omelette.
