The Gate Seymour Place
One of London’s most popular vegetarian restaurants added a third venue to its burgeoning portfolio at the beginning of December with the opening of The Gate Seymour Place. Originally founded in 1989 by Adrian and Michael Daniel, The Gate offers an innovative menu with vegetables at the heart.
The Seymour Place venue will continue with the brand’s philosophies of celebrating food through carefully sourced ingredients, skilfully cooking to intensify flavours and combining ingredients in unexpected and creative ways.
The interior of the new restaurant has been designed by architect Alice Bajrach, who spoke to Premier Hospitality about the restaurant design:
“When we were planning the design we spoke a lot about what we wanted to achieve with the interior. We have a palette of colours and textures with an earthy feel but it’s kept to a minimum. We have white brick walls, concrete finishes and brash finishes. We wanted to create an earthy feel but at the same time try to be inviting and contemporary. The food at The Gate is trying to avoid the clichés of vegetarianism and we tried to do that with the interiors as well by trying to be urban and attractive.
“Compared to the other two restaurants, the design is a little bit different. The Hammersmith restaurant is a quirky space because it was an old studio and had a character of its own. The Islington restaurant, again, had its own character because it was an old Victorian space. Now being in another part of town we’ve found ourselves in a different space again. We wanted to make it look completely dissimilar to what people would normally expect of a vegetarian place. This third restaurant is about finding the language of the interior.”
Making maximum use of natural light and simple furnishings, The Gate Seymour Place is a calm and refreshing space. With room for 86 to eat and a further 16 seated on the terrace outside, the restaurant is also the first within The Gate portfolio to offer breakfast. Scrambled tofu with smoky shiitake mushrooms, toasted bagels with fresh avocado and organic poached eggs are some of the dishes on offer.
One of the most consistent points The Gate is praised for is that it brings the enjoyment of vegetarian food to non-vegetarians as well.
The Gate’s Head of Food, Yossi Edri, works closely with the restaurant’s founders to develop new, innovative dishes which cater to vegetarians and vegans. The main menu will therefore include established favourites like aubergine teriyaki and green banana fritters alongside new additions such as three-way filled globe artichoke, aubergine schnitzel and wild mushroom rotolo.
The drinks menu will be a mix of sustainably sourced wines, from a diverse range of producers including the Yealands Estate in New Zealand and the Limney Vineyard in East Sussex. Cocktails, including The Gate’s Jalapeño Margarita, will also be available alongside freshly made juices.
Co-founder Michael Daniel commented:
“The launch of The Gate Seymour Place marks an important step in the life of our family business. I feel the time is right to bring our take on vegetarian dining to even more people and we’re excited to be doing so in central London and in particular in Seymour Place among many fellow independents. It is a venue which affords us a bigger stage for our inventive and carefully-honed cooking.”
The Gate was established by Michael and Adrian, brothers with an Indo-Iraqi heritage, who wanted to recreate the diverse flavours and culinary experiences they had enjoyed as children, eating food with Arabic, Indian and Jewish influences.
Michael and Adrian’s Hammersmith restaurant quickly became a go-to destination for vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike and its reputation grew. Now widely recognised as one of the best vegetarian restaurants in London and with accolades from around the world, The Gate is both a much-loved institution with a loyal and devoted following, and a restaurant which has been quietly and confidently promoting healthy-eating for almost three decades.
The Gate Hammersmith is located next to the Hammersmith Apollo, undergoing refurbishment in 2012. While closed The Gate Islington opened up and since 2014 both restaurants have gone from strength to strength in their own right. In its 27-year history The Gate has won numerous accolades and become a staple of London’s independent hospitality community.
Industville Ltd.
Industville Ltd. is a dynamic addition to the design lighting and furniture sector, specialising in the design and manufacture of bespoke, vintage, industrial inspired lighting and furniture. They offer high quality, design led products, available for next day delivery in large numbers without the high cost and time-constraints of searching for originals. All Industville’s handcrafted products are designed by an in house team of experienced designers and architectural specialists based in the UK.
Clients of Industville Ltd. have included a variety of distinguished retail, leisure and hospitality companies such as Café Nero, Lush, Jamie Oliver’s restaurants and SuperDry as well as smaller scale independent retail customers.
Recently, the company worked on The Gate: Seymour Place where they supplied their Brooklyn range which is designed in elements so the same family of shades can be used across wall lights, flush mounts and pendants. This features on the pendant lighting over the bar in the restaurant as well as the giant shades as an architectural statement within the space.
Elizabeth Coulson of Industville Ltd. commented:
“The combination of the stripped back design of the restaurant works with our lighting and they complement each other very well. It was important for us to be involved in this project as we tailor our lighting to each project allowing us to evolve in different design aesthetics and spaces.”
She added:
“We pride ourselves in providing unique lighting designs that are a stand out within the industry and we have exceptional customer service.”
