Chantelle Nicholson’s Mayfair restaurant is innovative in so many ways it’s hard to list them all. From the stripped back aesthetic to its sustainable, low-waste approach, Apricity feels like it might be more at home in Hackney than its very desirable post code and, as such, stands out for all the right reasons.
Nicholson has worked hard to ensure that her restaurant is more than the sum of its parts with numerous initiatives that go above and beyond what is usually required of such an establishment.
Sustainable produce is used at the height of the season from small-scale farmers with chefs taking a low-waste approach to cooking. This low waste ethos extends to the restaurant’s design, which resulted in a 40% decrease in emissions compared to a standard restaurant fitout thanks to the use of recycled materials. Moreover, everything was designed so it can be taken apart, re-used, donated, or recycled at the end of its life.
Equal consideration is paid to staff welfare, with Apricity’s opening days limited from Tuesday to Saturday to ensure everyone in the team has two days off together. The restaurant has also adopted an 11pm curfew to enable to safely take public transport home and its pricing ensures everyone is paid appropriately with the implementation of a discretionary gratuity contribution of 5% that goes directly to everyone in the business.
Even the little people are looked after. In January the restaurant launched Culinary Kids, a tasting menu for youngsters in partnership with charity School Food Matters. The accessible five-course menu is designed to ‘help children expand their taste buds, learn more about where food comes from and explore seasonality’. It followed it up in February with learning and cooking sessions for kids to give them a better understanding of where their food comes from.
Nicholson has worked hard to ensure that her restaurant is more than the sum of its parts with numerous initiatives that go above and beyond what is usually required of such an establishment.
Sustainable produce is used at the height of the season from small-scale farmers with chefs taking a low-waste approach to cooking. This low waste ethos extends to the restaurant’s design, which resulted in a 40% decrease in emissions compared to a standard restaurant fitout thanks to the use of recycled materials. Moreover, everything was designed so it can be taken apart, re-used, donated, or recycled at the end of its life.
Equal consideration is paid to staff welfare, with Apricity’s opening days limited from Tuesday to Saturday to ensure everyone in the team has two days off together. The restaurant has also adopted an 11pm curfew to enable to safely take public transport home and its pricing ensures everyone is paid appropriately with the implementation of a discretionary gratuity contribution of 5% that goes directly to everyone in the business.
Even the little people are looked after. In January the restaurant launched Culinary Kids, a tasting menu for youngsters in partnership with charity School Food Matters. The accessible five-course menu is designed to ‘help children expand their taste buds, learn more about where food comes from and explore seasonality’. It followed it up in February with learning and cooking sessions for kids to give them a better understanding of where their food comes from.
