“That’s the Norman’s effect for you,” read a message from a friend, pinged on the niche subject of culinary gentrification.
asserted
message → ’ → gentrification
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I nodded along unknowingly while googling what else I might have missed in the 15 years since leaving school, or, more damningly, five since fleeing east London.
uncertain
I → read → London
He meant Norman’s Café, a now-closed hotspot in Archway that reinvented the working man’s café.
asserted
that → mean → café
A year after calling time, co-founder Elliott Kaye has opened the door to his new solo venture, Marrion’s in Hackney, announced in The Standard.
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Kaye → call → Standard
I sit at the bar in front of two enthusiastic barmen with a small hole in the wall behind them leading to the kitchen of what is billed as a cocktail-led fusion restaurant.
asserted
what → sit → restaurant
On paper, you’d worry about Marrion’s succeeding as a neighbourhood local because fusion has never been anyone’s go-to.
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fusion → worry → local
It is a one-night gimmick, something you try once and leave with a renewed appreciation for the original.
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you → try → original
No rational member of society has gobbled a sushi burrito and thought both cultures had finally reached their natural conclusion.
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cultures → gobble → conclusion
Fusion is not innovation, but botched taxidermy: two fine cuisines sawn through the middle then stitched back together for the sake of novelty, a long fan of glossy hula leaves grafted beneath the stiff, musky torso of lederhosen.
asserted
Fusion → saw → lederhosen
Marrion’s chooses French bistro and American diner, which at least feels a little more plausible.
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which → choose → bistro
The two nations have collaborated before.
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nations → collaborate → ?
Coppa ham arrives under a scatter of pickled green chillies.
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ham → arrive → chillies
These are delectable slices of deep red meat, webbed with shining marbled fat.
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These → web → fat
Moules-frites and crab toast follow swiftly.
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frites → follow → ?
The cheese arrives with its aggressive trademark blisters, clamped over dark crab meat with a Worcestershire kick running through it.
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cheese → arrive → it
Dark crab is a flavour that holds court at dinner parties.
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that → hold → parties
Here, it is unexpectedly humbled by a mature cheese that matches it in loud stature.
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that → humble → stature
Oddly, the two settle one another in a rich, salty vulgarity.
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two → settle → vulgarity
It is the sort of dinner party you enjoy enormously provided you’re not expected to see it all through.
asserted
you → enjoy → it
The moules-frites are as they should be, which is faint praise until you consider how many restaurants have spent decades finding new ways to interfere with moules-frites.
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restaurants → consider → frites
Through the window, I can see Kaye cooking solo.
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Kaye → see → window
Instead, five salt shakers sit on top of the paper orders to stop them wandering off.
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them → sit → orders
It makes the kitchen look less brigade de cuisine and more seaside village church raffle.
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kitchen → make → ?
Marrion’s makes more sense as I go on: tuna melt, schnitzel Holstein and a cheeseburger, with most plates sitting somewhere around the £12 mark.
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plates → make → mark
The tuna melt is perhaps the dish that best explains what Marrion’s is trying to do, Monterey jack cheese peeping through the top lip and a large half log of pickle pinned with a toothpick.
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cheese → explain → toothpick
“The burger is how an elderly Parisian would tart up a Big Mac”
Kaye doesn’t attempt to rescue anything; he tightens the bolts on things that already exist.
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that → tart → things
There are foods improved by supreme culinary intervention and foods that mainly require somebody to know when to stop.
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that → be → somebody
This burger falls firmly into the latter camp and can best be described as how you’d expect an elderly Parisian to tart up a Big Mac.
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Parisian → fall → Mac
It retains the indecent nostalgia.
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It → retain → nostalgia
Restraint matters because Marrion’s could so easily have become a restaurant about its own concept.
uncertain
Marrion → matter → concept
I can smell the nauseating truffle mayo already.
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I → smell → mayo
Instead, Marrion’s is casual enough not to feel performed, but serious enough to return to.
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Marrion → feel → ?
The prices permit repetition and the room encourages an uncluttered neutrality, and it grew on me.
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it → permit → me
I may have missed “the Norman’s effect”.
uncertain
I → miss → effect
Any neighbourhood would be well served with a Marrion’s one.
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neighbourhood → serve → one
What you say
Rob Humphreys
“Fantastic bar, great food, would highly recommend.”
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bar → say → What
Dimi Artemenko
“You know the place is special when you enter it.
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you → know → it
It genuinely feels like it’s been here forever, but is equally unique and exciting.
asserted
it → feel → ?
The Aporia
