This is what happens when a fledgling talent ages a little, and begins serving food with cool, clear, adult direction
The Golden Tooth, on Green Lanes in north London, sounds as if it could be a pirate’s watering hole in Penzance, filled with wooden-legged rascal seafarers. It is, however, a pub and restaurant 10 minutes from Canonbury station, serving Hereford wing-rib with smoked bone marrow bordelaise, hogget chops with hot mint and grilled radicchio, and lardy cake with Baron Bigod and mountain tea syrup.
This is the second official project from chef Matthew Scott and wine merchant Charlie Carr, the duo behind Papi in London Fields, which, though now defunct, is forever memorable. Papi was scrappy, slightly chaotic, archly cool, yet never pompous, and was famed for Scott’s penchant for going off at random tangents and Carr’s earnest adherence to old-fashioned hospitality. Scott is, very quietly, one of the most interesting cooks around right now, although he wouldn’t appreciate the attention: Papi’s social media was a glorious paean to visible discomfort as he sold his restaurant’s wares on Instagram, and his hangdog expression and weak enthusiasm were oddly joyous. In Scott’s earlier Hot 4 U pop-up era, he was known for the likes of garum Pom-Bears, foie gras mini Magnums and Nesquik daiquiris. Papi, with its iced rhubarb oysters and devilled cheese schnitzels, was a bit more reserved.
