Brett Redman to Launch New Japanese Yakitori Restaurant in Dalston

Jidori is a new Japanese yakitori restaurant launching in Dalston, Autumn 2015, founded by Brett Redman (who recently opened The Richmond in Hackney to great acclaim) and Natalie Lee-Joe. At hundreds of yakitori joints across Tokyo – especially down the notorious Memory Lane in Shinjuku – chicken skewers are traditionally grilled over open coals, and Jidori brings the hugely popular Japanese street food from Tokyo to east London for the first time.

Serving lunch and dinner, the menu at Jidori focuses on a selection of yakitori skewers – using all parts of the chicken – served alongside inventive Japanese small plates and rice dishes. Yakitoridon will be a lunch exclusive, also available to take away. Jidori works closely with Nama Yasai, the Lewes-based, specialist Japanese agricultural growers to supply vegetables and herbs. And with the restaurant's name inspired by the premium grade Japanese poultry, Redman continues to work with trusted suppliers of quality produce; from Goosnargh chickens, ike jime fish and in-season Spanish yuzu.

The open kitchen is the heart of Jidori, centred upon its Kama-Asa Shoten grill, a century-old, artisanal grill maker Lee-Joe met whilst travelling across Japan. Kama-Asa also supplies Tokyo's three Michelin starred Kojyu, Hong Kong's Yardbird and Page in Paris. Redman continues his four-year relationship with the London Log Company to source a sustainable charcoal that shares similar properties to traditional Binchotan. The restaurant's grill and charcoal sees Jidori passionately create an experience as close to a Japanese yakitori-ya as possible.

Jidori seats 40, including those around the open kitchen and custom made grill. With creative branding and concepts by Lee-Joe, the space is designed by Giles Reid, with a minimalist approach yet intimate feel, accented by wood, neat lines and brass trim. Reid's commercial portfolio includes the Shard and Louis T Blouin Foundation.

The bar will serve a short list of well-balanced cocktails with Japanese spirits and ingredients, alongside both local and Japanese craft beers, whiskies and sake. Celebrating the spirit of true yakitori izakayas, the drinks menu will be rough, ready, fun and accessible.

ENDS

www.jidori.co.uk

89, Kingsland High Street London E8 2BP

Notes to Editors

In 2006 Brett Redman opened his first restaurant. He set up in a little disused shop on Bethnal Green road, and called it Elliot's, after the street he grew up on. The food he served was locally sourced and seasonal - with dishes improvised around the best possible ingredients available each day. This was before every restaurant in town was serving organic, 'farm-to-table' fare, so in that way, it was quite pioneering and it became an overnight success: locals loved it and people started travelling from all over London to eat there. Off the back of that success, he opened the Pavilion in Victoria Park in 2007, and then, in 2011, a second, more developed incarnation of Elliot's in the middle of Borough Market. Using more or less only ingredients sourced from the market suppliers around him, Brett won Elliot's a Michelin Gourmand Bib in its first year, as well as giddily enthusiastic entries in the Good Food Guide and the Tatler restaurant guide. In April 2015 Brett opened The Richmond, a new restaurant and bar right at the intersection of Dalston, Haggerston and London Fields, where he developed a contemporary menu based around his curiosities as a chef and his ongoing commitment to working with ingredients of the highest quality and cleanest provenance. Brett is 34 years old and before opening the Bethnal Green Elliot's he trained as a chef at some of Sydney's top restaurants, including Marque and Four in Hand Bistro. Brett and Natalie both love Asian food and felt there was a real gap in the market for accessible, casual and fun Japanese food- the sort they like to eat on a regular basis. They have both travelled Japan extensively and have been working together on the Jidori concept for over two years.

Natalie Lee-Joe has been working in advertising for the past 11 years, from Sydney to London, most recently a creative strategist at Saatchi & Saatchi. Years of experience traveling, working and eating across Asia including Japan, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia are coupled with her lifelong passion for food and restaurants. She grew up in a household where food was central to the family; vivid memories of live crabs in the sink waiting to be cooked by her mum, to spending days during the summer holidays cooking curries with her Fijian uncle Eddie, to Sunday roast dinners with her grandmother.

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