Trocca shakes up the London restaurant scene with a reimagining of his Buenos Aires institution.

Sucre

Chef Fernando Trocca has been a leading light in contemporary Latin American cuisine since launching the original Sucre in Buenos Aires in 2001 and featuring on the Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants. He champions a cooking style that combines traditional Latin American open-fire techniques with a broad palette of international influences.

Sucre occupies an iconic, 310-year-old building on Great Marlborough Street, formerly the home of the London College of Music, taking over the spacious ground floor space for its 123-cover restaurant. Downstairs houses a brand-new 75-cover cocktail bar Abajo (“a-ba-ho”) led by Tato Giovannoni, a stalwart at the top of the World’s 50 Best Bars.

The restaurant, designed by Japanese architect Noriyoshi Muramatsu, occupies a large, high-ceilinged space, formerly the College’s concert hall. The restaurant décor is warm and welcoming and pays tribute to the building’s heritage, combining the faded grandeur of its historic fabric with striking industrial features and bespoke chandeliers consisting of over a thousand cut-glass decanters.

The open kitchen plays host to a dramatic fireplace and wood oven, placing the chefs at centre stage. Trocca’s menu combines old-world flavours and modern ideas all through the lens of Latin American open-fire cooking craft.

Sample À La Carte Menu

Tasters

• Carlingford oysters, smoked tomato granita
• Aged Cheddar and onion empanada

Small Plates

• Scallop tiradito, jalapeño, horseradish, soy
• White beans with morcilla and romesco
• Veal tongue with salsa verde

Charcoal Fire

• Hispi cabbage with burnt onion and blue cheese
• Ibérico pork matambre
• Monkfish tail with XO sauce and black beans

Wood Oven

• Half chicken, peas “à la française”

Stove

• Brill with tarragon, maitake and chicken butter sauce

Sides

• Pink fir potatoes, seaweed butter
• Shaved courgette, almonds and chilli

Sucre’s wine list also pays tribute to the journey from Old World to New, listing South American labels alongside wines from their European origins. The focused and changing list will explore the historical immigration of grape varieties, techniques and winemakers from Europe to the New World.

Abajo

Beneath Fernando Trocca’s Argentinian restaurant, Sucre at 47 Great Marlborough Street, sits Abajo, where Tato Giovannoni’s inventive mixology celebrates arts and cultures at this experiential drinking den. The late-night bar awakens the spirit with eclectic sounds of disco, soul and funk spinning on vinyl and live bands supplying the soul and disco music.

The exposed brick walls, original wooden ceiling and steel columns set the tone in Abajo, which takes inspiration from the underground bars and clubs that injected colour and creativity into early 80s Buenos Aires after years of political darkness. The décor pays homage to these reclaimed industrial spaces, with a solid steel bar and eclectic furnishings. The revolutionary “inside out” bar is the room’s centrepiece and is a brand-new experience for bar-goers, allowing guests to see the inner workings of the cocktail creation.

Tato’s unique cocktail menu embodies the colour and rebellion of this period in history. The menu features primarily highballs, including:

Something Blue

Príncipe de Apostoles gin, Ojo de Tigre mezcal, blue spirulina, tonic.

Something Green

Great King Street whisky, green Chartreuse, Argentine mixed grains, egg white, soda.

Something Purple

Empirical plum spirit, Giovannoni Rosso vermouth, Dubonnet rouge, plum kombucha.

A: 47 Great Marlborough Street, London, W1F 7JP
W: Alma by Sucre
E: Reservations
T: 020 3988 3329