London Life

The Manhattan maestro bringing cool to London



Make it past the style-police bouncer (dress code: if you need to ask, you're not getting in), descend the bare industrial stairs, emerge into the clatter of a kitchen, turn a corner, knowingly nod your name to the maître d', and there it is: a secret cellar of a cocktail bar and Mexican restaurant, where the ceviche is sexy, the tequila potent and the atmosphere glamorously subterranean.

This is La Esquina, one of New York's hippest destinations. The wax-dripping candelabras are as giant and numerous as the dishes are small and varied. If you're in the know and à la mode, you'll get in. If you're a Londoner in love with two of the capital's hottest nightlife trends - Mexican street food and speakeasies - you'll think you've died and gone to underground heaven.

The brains behind La Esquina is Serge Becker. He's the king of discerning Manhattan's nightlife, a detail-crunching visionary possessed of a clear eye for what makes a place a must-go, must-be-seen-at destination.

He's also the creative director responsible for New York hipster institutions Miss Lily's, The Bowery Bar, The Mercer Hotel and The Box - the celeb-magnet London flesh-pit of the same name is the offspring of Becker's NYC establishment.

Now the man described by hotelier André Balazs as less designer than "cultural engineer" is coming to London. Later this month, in partnership with serial entrepreneur Ed Spencer Churchill and restaurateur Will Ricker (Eight Over Eight, E&O, Great Eastern Dining Room), the 50-year old Paris-born, Zurich-raised, New York transplant opens La Bodega Negra. Sited in a prime Soho location, the complex encompasses a Mexican restaurant, bar, roadside taqueria and café. Let's call it a Sex Mex.

From the private basement dining room via killer tequila and fetish-flavoured interior décor, to a menu serving zingy street food and zingier cocktails all the way to 2am, La Bodega Negra promises to bring spicy-sexy-cool to the London culinary scene.

It is sure to glow with Becker's signature mystery and exclusivity. La Bodega Negra won't need saucy entertainment, although there will be DJs and perhaps the occasional drag performer. The appeal will come from signature dishes such as Al Pastor pork tacos (£2.50 to take away), £4 tostaditas and Octopus el Negro (£11.50), as well as cocktails such as the Hibiscus and Tamarind Margaritas.

"This is basically a version 2.0 - ideas that take a cue from what we do in New York," beanie-clad Becker tells me as we take a dusty pew in the basement bar and restaurant. It's the black-clad heart of this two-floor, 5,000sq ft, 189-cover establishment.

It's hard to tell at this under-construction point what the "look" will be, other than shadowy, lowlit and honeycombed with comfily discreet nooks. Before we start to talk, Becker shifts a car bonnet onto a black barrel. It features three, possibly four pairs of intertwined, fishnet-clad legs. The painted steel will be hung on the wall next to the vintage anatomical drawings that Becker's team have sourced and painted with the addition of gimp masks and burlesque touches.
He's bleary, grizzled and has flown in from New York to attend to "a million little details; a tweak here, a tweak there". He credits Spencer Churchill with having the idea for La Bodega Negra and affirms that Ricker's involvement is "pivotal for me. It gives me peace of mind that somebody is here minding the store and will really do a credible, professional job".

But after 30 years on the New York scene, he's the man with the Midas touch before which his UK partners bow. Becker says that a jumping-off point for his first London venture is La Esquina. Beloved of the Manhattan fashion crowd, it's a great spot for dinner en route to a club, or as a tequila-fuelled end itself.

During last February's New York Fashion Week I enjoyed a giddy night at another Becker joint. Joe's Pub is a cool little music venue in NoHo that is more elegant supper club than spit 'n' sawdust drinking den. The 161-capacity venue is the launchpad of choice for many a hot British act trying to kickstart US success. I was there to interview Eliza Doolittle.

Were he in attendance at her show, Becker would have smiled his approval. Doolittle's performance, served up to diners and drinkers drawn by guest-list or word-of-mouth and sharing communal tables, is exactly the kind of moment at which Becker excels.

Now that he's about to launch in London, what kind of door policy will he be implementing at La Bodega Negra? Can anyone get in?

"Ah, you tell me!" he chuckles of the reservation-only downstairs. No, there won't be a secret telephone number, a social filter-cum-gimmick that's been deployed at La Esquina, Joe's Pub and The Box. But, he says carefully: "It's going to be a learning experience to figure out who all the people are and how to mix them."

He acknowledges that a certain celebrity quotient "is part of the business. For this type of venue there's no two ways about it - you have to have it in order for it to work. But that kinda comes naturally at this point It's not built around it, but it's inevitable."

Spoken like a man with his finger on the temperature and tempo of nightlife on both sides of the Atlantic.

Still, he is a newcomer to the UK. Becker needs to find his cultural feet and his way around a London that he says he's "seen be a little cliquey".

Explaining that it's similar to Jersey Shore, I ask if he would allow the cast of The Only Way is Essex to enter La Bodega Negra.

"Would they be welcome? I" He falters. "Well, personally, I'm very out of the loop on that part of culture, 'cause I don't have a TV!" grins this father of three young children. "So a lot of the time I just don't know who is who. But I don't think it will be snobbish like that. If somebody has their 15 minutes, by all means" They can enjoy 10 tequila-fuelled minutes of them in La Bodega Negra? "Yeah!" Serge Becker laughs. "Well, spend one of those minutes here - and entertain us!"

La Bodega Negra opens on March 16 at 16 Moor Street, W1.