Cassette, from the Levan team, opens in Covent Garden
The founders of Levan swap live fire for French bistro technique in a 1630s townhouse on Maiden Lane, with former Note chef Essa Fakhry running the kitchen.
Cassette Covent Garden, the new French restaurant from the founders of Levan, opens on Maiden Lane on 23 September, trading Levan's live-fire cooking for classic bistro technique.
The restaurant occupies 42 Maiden Lane, a Grade II listed townhouse dating to the 1630s, a short walk from Levan's original site. Mark Gurney and Matt Bushnall, who opened Levan in 2021, are behind the project. Madeleine Fawcett, previously general manager at Forza Wine, runs the floor.
Chef Essa Fakhry leads the kitchen. He founded and ran Note in Dublin before working at Planque in London, and built Cassette's opening menu around what the team calls contemporary Parisian technique rather than a conventional bistro script.
A 1630s townhouse gives Cassette a dining room Levan's converted shop unit never had.
A menu built on technique
The opening menu includes a coq-au-vin jaune pie, grilled monkfish served au poivre, and a terrine of fromage de tête with tarragon. A full wine list had not been published ahead of opening, though it is expected to lean on the small growers that defined Levan's list.
The building itself does some of the work. A 1630s townhouse gives Cassette a dining room Levan's converted shop unit never had, and the team has kept structural features rather than stripping the space back to a blank box.
A name borrowed from music
The name continues a habit at the group: Levan is named after the New York DJ Larry Levan, and Gurney runs a record label and DJs outside the kitchen. Cassette extends that reference rather than nodding to France directly.
Covent Garden has become a proving ground for chef-led openings this autumn. Will Devlin took over the rooftop at the Conduit two streets away the day before, giving the postcode two serious new kitchens within 24 hours.
Fakhry's own path, from a small Dublin dining room to a listed London townhouse, is likely to draw as much attention as the coq-au-vin once reviewers start booking tables in October. For a lighter take on the same French repertoire, Amuse's own French onion soup recipe covers the bistro classic Cassette's menu builds on.
