New on Wine List Confidential: Kitchen Table

Artisan Champagne is the draw at Kitchen Table, spilling over from the ‘hot dogs and Champagne’ concept at Bubbledogs, within which this pint-size restaurant is located.

The engaging Sandia Chang is, with husband and head chef, James Knappett, co-founder of Fitzrovia’s Kitchen Table, which is discretely located at the back of gourmet hot dogs and Champagne bar, Bubbledogs.

Chang oversees the wine list which pulls focus on largely kindly priced, grower Champagnes, including the wines of Marie Courtin. ‘She is one of the most wonderful producers, working completely biodynamically and on her own off of a parcel of just 2.5 hectares in the Aube. We have always carried her Concordance cuvée which is 100% Pinot Noir, with no dosage nor added sulphur. We have become extremely close and she even sent her daughter to work with us at Bubbledogs over the summer.’

A concise selection of still wines includes white and red bottles from the Coteaux Champenois (Olivier Horiot), England (Gusbourne Pinot Noir) and even Poland (Dom Bliskowice), as well as, given Chang’s provenance, the USA. Burgundy features; Bordeaux does not.

Knappet’s tasting menu may include crab tartlet with bergamot and sorrel, venison Wellington with purées of cep and damson, and hibiscus poached rhubarb with charred black pepper meringue.

On account of her enthusiasm for craft winemakers, Chang, whose CV as sommelier, includes Noma in Copenhagen and Thomas Keller’s Per Se, New York, and in London, Roganic marque one, Kitchen Table has become a nexus for low intervention inclined winemakers to aim for to showcase their wares alongside detailed cuisine. “We have had the honour to have hosted a lot of guest chefs and wine producers from around the world,’ she says. ‘But, to this day, the most memorable event was when Thomas Keller came to support us at our opening…”

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