Rankin’s third resto to focus on pizza and vermouth

Having focused on tacos and mezcal at Temper, then gin and curry at Temper City, Neil Rankin’s third London site will shine a light on pizza and vermouth.

Neil Rankin will focus on pizza and vermouth at Temper’s third site

As reported by Hot Dinners, completing the hat-trick is Temper Covent Garden, which is due to open this spring within a new office, restaurant and retail development in Mercer’s Walk.

Vermouth is out there: Temper Covent Garden will show love to the fortified, aromatised wine

According to Hot Dinners, the focus this time will be on wood-fired pizzas topped with cured meats, served alongside lashings of vermouth, which is becoming increasingly popular in the capital both as a neat serve and within cocktails.

Rankin will be prepping a selection of ragus for his pizzas, including goat, game and pork.

Keen to make the most of the site, he will also be luring nearby office workers to Temper for their morning coffees, and will be serving piping hot croissants fresh from his wood-fired oven alongside home-cured bacon and sausages.

Having enjoyed success with both the Islington Smokehouse and a sister site in Chiswick, in November 2016 Rankin opened Temper in Soho and was one of the first to champion the humble taco in the capital while also putting smoky Mexican spirit mezcal on a pedestal.

Last July he followed up with Temper City in Angel Court, where curries like meatball marrow masalas are cooked over an open-fire pit and animals are butchered on site, though, thankfully, not in front of diners.

The site serves a selection of gins from all over the world, from Australia to Japan. Each comes with its own suggested tonic and bespoke cocktail.

Prior to The Smokehouse, Rankin cut his teeth at Jamie Olliver’s Barbecoa and barbecue specialist Pitt Cue Co, one of the first places in the capital to pioneer American-style slow smoked meat in the UK.