Kabaret @ Karamel
Come to the Kabaret (@ Karamel restaurant)
On 1st September Kabaret the new restaurant @ Karamel opens its doors!
Kabaret will offer an imaginative taste-driven menu of World Food, drawing on the very best of authentic dishes from around the globe. Cakes and sumptuous desserts will feature strongly, and quality coffee is a top priority. Also on offer; fresh juices and super healthy smoothies, as well as gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, and raw food dishes.
The Bar will specialise in craft beers (from award winning micro-breweries), fine wines, and ‘kocktails’. White Russians, the classic cocktail famously immortalised in The Big Lebowski and the Dr Feelgood song Milk & Alcohol, will be a house speciality.
Head Chef is Anarkali Sharpe, previously proprietor of Soul Café in Camden and before that, Chef at Vantra, an organic restaurant in Soho. Anarkali is a highly creative and talented chef, whose legendary ‘sinfully delicious’ raw chocolate truffles are already building a following. Kabaret @ Karamel will also introduce ‘Guest Chef Nights’ such as Ethiopia Night with chef Abycina and African music from top DJ Guy Morley.
Kabaret Co-Directors Frank Hutson and Louise Wallis are locals, having lived in Wood Green for over 25 years. They co-front the band Luminous Frenzy, signed to Freeport Entertainment, and in that guise have played Bestival, The Big Chill, The Purcell Room, and this year closed the Crouch End Festival.
Frank is an award-winning musician, composer and DJ whose career took off shortly after he completed a Collage Arts Sound Engineering course. In 2000 he wrote the score for a new play called Resonances (with singer songwriter Sadie Jemmett) directed by Irina Brook and starring Irene Jacob (Three Colours Red). The play became a phenomenon and won a Molière award for best new show in France for the year 2000. He’s gone on to work with some of Europe’s top directors and talent including French actress Romane Bohringer in a production of Tennesse Williams’ The Glass Menagerie which went on to tour the world.
In 2011 Frank was also lucky enough to collaborate with ‘King Eric’, footballer-turned-actor Eric Cantona, on a production of classic French text Ubu Enchaîné: “It was a privilege to work with Eric on his first theatre piece, but even better was the warm-up game of ‘football tennis’ we played every morning before rehearsal. The first time I played Eric, I won and I’ve been dining out on that story ever since! (Sadly this was a fluke – and I subsequently lost every other game with him)”.
Louise is an acclaimed DJ, and was voted one of the World’s Top 100 Female DJs. She also has a background in catering, having run Café Femmilia on Turnpike Lane in the late 90s, and previously cooked at Cafe Pushkar, in Brixton, and the East West Centre, on Old St.
“We’re thrilled to be bringing Kabaret to Karamel, it’s a dream come true for us”, says Louise. “We chose the name Kabaret because it captures the multi-faceted and artistic nature of this unique venue: good food AND great live entertainment. We want to build on Karamel’s existing customer base and excellent reputation and expand the venue’s repertoire. Check the website every day because we’ll soon have a different event every night, as well as old favourites like ‘Poetry & Poppadoms’”.
Working in partnership with the team at Collage Arts, the duo aim to create a vibrant, arts-driven venue with imaginative programming: “A place where anything can happen and no two nights are the same. A place where you can meet friends for a drink, eat great food and see cutting edge acts”.
As the song famously put it:
“Life is a Kabaret, old chum, Come to the Kabaret”