I have had this dream for many years now.
It started as 'Side' and then grew to 'Show' and finally '64 Degrees'. The idea was simple, cut out all the jazz and focus on the food, nothing crazy or overwhelming just do things we (as chefs) want to do, with no rules, no boundaries, just get our balls out there and see what happens.
I am luck enough to be one of those people that really love their job, some elements suck like being stuck in a dungeon of a kitchen being shouted at by someone for too many hours a day, but before having my girls I had some of the best times of my life in a kitchen, and that's what 64 Degrees is all about. I want it to be a place that chefs want to work and get treated well. We will still be working long hours, but that will never change.
The chefs will be cooking and serving the food with one host per service, the chefs will do the rest. The customers will have direct contact with the team with the kitchen being built into the restaurant, they can even sit at the bar and watch the chefs do their thing.
The food will be served on small plates with a sharing tapas feel and a focus on flavour combinations, creative but still approachable. Using local produce and being sustainable is still very important to me, maybe not as strict as my days at Due South were but along those lines.
64 Degrees will be taking no bookings, with the fact that it is such a small space at 24 covers I didn't want the stress of tables not showing up, wrong bookings so on and so on and I think it will be fair on everyone, first come first served.
The location was the hardest decision with the concept being quite different it needed to be somewhere with the best footfall to give it half a chance. So by luck we found out that Tic Toc cafe was selling up, it was perfect, small, a real blank canvas. So 53 Meeting House Lane after a lot of legal stuff and support from Scotland became ours.
It has taken us a long time to get here with a lot of hills to climb with more lows than highs, some bad advice and some crazy moments. Most people have no idea how hard it is. Thinking about it now it has been a fucking nightmare and we haven't even finished building the thing yet, I got the best support from my fantastic girlfriend Carla, and the advice and trust I got from my man Jim in Scotland.
I just cant wait to get this beast open and start cooking.
