It’s served at the table and you can eat as much as you like
The Steak Frites Cafe in Central Avenue, West Bridgford(Image: Joseph Raynor/ Reach PLC)
It’s a meat lover’s dream come true with the opening of a new cafe serving unlimited steak frites. For £20 diners can feast to their heart’s content on sirloin and fries.
Called Steak Frites Cafe, the founders are testing the concept in West Bridgford, hoping that the law of averages means they’ll make it work.
The cafe will be located above Irish bar O’Connor’s, in Central Avenue, but it is a separate operation. As well as having the restaurant upstairs, Steak Frites Cafe will also share the outside seating.
Joe Dakin, who is launching the cafe with business partner Richard Denman, said: “For a long time we have been toying with the idea of this concept.
“Steak frites-style restaurants operating in London and Paris have done really well there so basically we’re taking that model and bringing it to Nottingham.”
The idea is based on the L’Entrecôte model, a successful concept created by French restaurateur Paul Gineste de Saurs in Paris in 1959 with no menu. The choice at Le Relais de l’Entrecôte was simple — steak and frites.
West Bridgford steak lovers will have bread and salad served straight away and within minutes servers with a tray of steaks and aluminium bowl of fries will arrive at the table.
Steak and Frites as served at Steak Frites Cafe(Image: Joseph Raynor/ Reach PLC)
There will be no choice of cut — it’s all premium sirloin, with a choice of rare, medium or well done. Rather than being cooked to order, the steaks will be cooked, rested and then served constantly.
Served alongside will be the cafe’s own-version of the famous French green sauce, made with anchovies and tarragon, or classic peppercorn.
Joe said: “Without calling it fast food, it is fast food. The service is fast but it’s premium sirloin steak with the option for multiple servings.
“You will always get someone with a massive appetite but you work on averages. The L’Entrecôte model is already working.
“When you think of carveries and other unlimited kind of portions where you can go back and have as much as you like, generally there’s an average and so we’re hoping the average works out in our favour.
“It’s a concept we’re testing and we’ve put a lot into it. We’ve positioned it quite nicely and it’s been received quite well.
“I hope we can deliver on the expectation. Obviously anyone who’s launching for the first time will always be apprehensive and nervous but I think we can execute it well enough.”
As well as lunch and dinner, breakfast will be served on Saturdays. An unlimited buffet will include steak, frites and eggs from 8am to 1pm. Delivery will be introduced in the future, using their own branded bikes.
The founders met in the catering industry 27 years ago. Richard, who used to manage carveries, enjoyed success with I Love Ostrich, a company famous for ostrich burgers sold at major events and festivals around the country.
Joe worked in restaurants for ten years and the last 15 years he has been involved in product design, development and branding.
If successful, they hope to open their own venue and grow from there. Joe said: “We’ve had a lot of interest from other restaurateurs and investors to scale up and I think that’s what we want to do.
“Step one is to take full premises outside of O’Connor’s and the subsequent steps are to take it out. Randomly I think the first place is Porto. We have a good restaurateur contact out there who has been following very closely and wants to get something going out there as soon as possible.”
Steak Frites Cafe will open its doors for the first time on Thursday, May 21, at 6pm. Normal opening times will be 12pm to 10pm Thursday to Sunday, and Bank Holiday Monday.
