This November, the husband and wife team behind Mimo, the award-winning cookery school and chef’s table, will launch Batera, a pintxos bar at The Borough Market Kitchen.
Meaning’together’ in Basque, Batera will draw on the culture of the pintxos bars that line the streets of the old town in San Sebastian, where Jon and Nicole Warren founded Mimo.
The bar will serve seasonal, daily-changing pintxos made with Basque specialties and British produce, sourced from bustling Borough Market itself.
A stone’s throw from the Mimo cookery school, visitors to Batera will be greeted by row upon row of pintxos from Executive Chef Joseba Lasa and Head Chef Ander Macho.
As in the Basque country, a line-up of different tortillas will be sliced throughout the day; carefully made to traditional recipes, they will feature ingredients such as salt cod, local cheeses, or foraged mushrooms.
Joseba’s more elevated pintxos include olive oil confit cod with piperade, leek and black olive confit; crab dressed in smoked oil and lemon zest, with spicy miso mayonnaise; and guindillas and pyke caviar.
Other pintxos ready to be picked and eaten straight away will include skewers of gildas; Scottish prawns with cider vinaigrette; and marinated artichokes, mint, toasted almond and Idiazabal pesto.
A changing dish of the day will see warming Basque recipes such as red wine braised oxtail come to the fore throughout the colder months.
Pintxos in hand, guests can then grab a seat at the communal dining tables lining The Borough Market Kitchen, a new space in the heart of the market where locals and visitors alike can sit and eat together.
Batera will be pouring Zapiain cider from a height, just like the cider houses of San Sebastian, using special cider glasses to hold chilled, 100% natural’sagardoa’.
Basqueland Brewing will be supplying beers brewed in San Sebastian, while for wine lovers, guests can sample a selection of Spanish and European wines, including another age-old Basque favourite, Txakoli.
For those looking to try their hands at making pintxos themselves, Mimo runs a San Sebastián: Pintxos of the Old Town cookery class, where guests are schooled in the art of the Basque small bites before sitting down to lunch together with wines paired to each course.
Other Mimo experiences making the most of their connection with the market include the Borough Market Tasting Tour, where visitors meet the traders and try their wares, and the Best of Borough Market Cooking Class, where guests learn to cook with the seasonal produce they’ve just collected from the stalls.
Batera will open on Monday 18th November.
The Borough Market Kitchen
Borough Market
8 Southwark Street
London
SE1 1TL
Opening times: Mon – Thurs : 10-5pm
Friday : 10-6pm
Saturday : 10-5pm
Sunday : Closed