Arts
Hello listeners! Marco Mendes and his business partner and good friend Jake Kasumov are behind one of the most loved new additions to London’s food scene over the past two years: the buzzing Portuguese restaurant Casa Do Frango in London Bridge, and they now have their second Casa in Shoreditch which opened at the start of the year. The duo’s restaurant group MJMK is also behind the much-anticipated Mexican fine dining restaurant Kol which (when this is all over) they’ll be opening with the brilliant Mexican chef Santiago Lastra. Marco and Jake met in London around 10 years ago, became good friends and decided to leave their corporate careers in their early twenties to start their own company - first doing music events, which led to bars and now restaurants. Marco is half Portuguese and grew up spending summers in the Algarve. He realised that Londoners were missing out on the real-deal piri-piri chicken and other food from this region of Portugal, and so, inspired by the chicken shacks he grew up eating in, Marco and Jake opened Casa in 2018. It’s good, honest tasty, affordable food with a big focus on using the best ingredients, both from the UK and Portugal. I met up with Marco back in February at their site in Shoreditch to hear the whole Casa story and what they have planned for their next restaurant Kol. The launch has of course been put on hold for now but it’s going to be something very special when it opens. Marco and Jake’s restaurant group is definitely one to watch. They have some ambitious and exciting plans up their sleeves, and I know that once this crisis has settled down, they’re going to be bringing a whole lot more to London's restaurant scene.