Misha Zelman opens Elezar inside a Mayfair crypt
Misha Zelman's Eastern European chophouse takes over a Hanover Square crypt that swallowed two previous restaurants in under a year, with whole-carcass butchery and £28 mains.
Elezar, a new Eastern European chophouse from restaurateur Misha Zelman, opened this month in the former crypt of St George's Church on Hanover Square, Mayfair.
The address at 2A Mill Street has a rocky recent history. Birmingham chef Brad Carter was originally lined up to open there, then pulled out around six months before launch. Aldo Zilli's Undercroft took the room instead, opened early this year and quietly closed last summer after less than six months.
Elezar takes over a troubled crypt
I want Elezar to become a restaurant guests are proud to return to and recommend.
Zelman, who describes himself as having "more than 30 years in steakhouses and beef" and says he previously co-founded Burger & Lobster, built the menu around pickling, fermenting, curing and whole-animal butchery. Zakuski open sandwiches come topped with herring, pork cheek, anchovy or caviar, ahead of pierogi and mackerel tartare.
Mains run at £28 and include tuna ribeye on the bone, a Dingley Dell pork chop with smoked parsnip, and Denver and picanha cuts, with pricier ribeye and T-bone as daily specials. Sauerkraut, hasselback potatoes and tomato salad fill out the sides, and meat fridges showing whole dry-aged carcasses sit at the centre of the dining room.
Head chef Erik Miotto, previously of Cycene and Akoko, has Ukrainian family roots. Consulting chef David Bury brings Polish heritage, and head of wine Merlin Ramos, who has worked at Humo and Town, has built a six-part wine list running from a Kamil Barczentewicz producer to Balkan bottles and French claret on tap.
A fair-price pitch from whole carcasses
"I want Elezar to become a restaurant guests are proud to return to and recommend," Zelman said. He frames the whole-carcass buying as the route to "fair prices" rather than a chef's flourish.
The name is adapted from the Hebrew Eleazar, meaning "God has helped" — a fitting line for a room that has swallowed two previous restaurants inside a year. For comparison, see Hawksmoor's own steakhouse numbers.
Whether Elezar lasts longer than Undercroft's six months will depend less on the crypt's cocktail list than on whether Mayfair wants a chophouse over a church floor. The week also brought Florence Knight's Lunette, which opened elsewhere in London this week.
