In their twelve years of working together, Jonny Lake and Isa Bal hadn't talked about opening a restaurant. “It was probably unspoken, but maybe we just felt like it was going to happen.” When chef Jonny arrived in the UK in 2005, he hadn’t planned on ever leaving Canada, intending to spend “just three months in Europe to work in the restaurants”. After Montreal and Quebec, with stints in the South of France and Italy, he arrived in Berkshire, where he was quickly joined at the Fat Duck by master sommelier Isa Bal, who had recently arrived from Turkey after studying hospitality. It was a decade later, over a terrible cup of coffee, that the pair made the decision to have their own restaurant. 

“The first step is making the decision to try to have the restaurant together. After that you don’t really know what you’re doing.” While elements of setting up their first restaurant, Trivet, felt instinctive  “you know everything there is to know about the kitchen, and I the wine” other lessons were only learned with time. There were learning curves, and the curveball of the pandemic, but seven years, two Michelin stars, and a brief lockdown pivot to a wine shop later, today we are sat in Labombe, the pair’s Park Lane venture that opened last year, after Trivet’s triumph..

From years of working together, Jonny and Isa were clear on what they wanted: “what the space would look like, what we would offer...” “…that it would be in London, and the kitchen needed to be on the same floor as the dining room...” “an a la carte menu!” With an open kitchen ensuring connection between guests, front of house and kitchen, and a dining experience that went beyond eating and drinking, Trivet allowed energy to flow “from the kitchen to the room, and the room back to the kitchen.” 

Trusting their instincts, and honing their taste and experience, the pair set their sights on a new project, developing Trivet’s Monday night wine bar (“the shortest opening wine bar at only three hours a week”) into its own space in the former Met Bar. Tucked off the side of Park Lane in the Como Metropolitan, Labombe puts sharing at the heart of this historic street. 

With a bigger grill than its older sibling, larger cuts of meat and whole fish feature proudly on Labombe’s menu, ready for a convivial dining experience hosted on generous tables. The pragmatism and playfulness of Trivet are welcomed into the redesigned bar, with Jonny and Isa’s friend Umay Çeviker – architect, designer, and wine expert – once again taking the lead. “It’s amazing because the words when you speak to guests in both restaurants, the words they use to describe us are the words we gave Umay to guide him in the first place”. An open room is decorated by artwork created by young British artists, selected by Labombe’s team in partnership with Incubator Gallery. British creativity flows from walls to the dishes on the table, with dishes made from the fine British produce that Trivet is known for – St Austell Mussels and Cornish lobster  are highlights. 

History, both shared and separate, guides our conversation at Labombe. Isa enthuses about oenology, explaining how Trivet’s menu tells the story of winemaking’s historical beginnings. Starting in Georgia, Turkey and Armenia (where winemaking originated in 7000 BC), Trivet’s offering also includes French and Italian wines — “relative newcomers to the game,” — that, for now, form the crux of Labombe’s comparatively modern list: “it takes time to develop.” Jonny, with similar enthusiasm, explains the history of the Met Bar, where Labombe now sits. “In the mid 90s to the early 2000s, this was a popular, important cultural hub... and we wanted to acknowledge that creativity.” 

Today, it’s about sharing history and knowledge, stories and experiences, with staff and guests alike – even the menu design is a nod to an early school project of Jonny’s. For Jonny, it’s about sharing the recipes and styles of the chefs who have come before him, keeping traditions alive for a new generation; for Isa, too, it’s about sharing quality information with young people trying to learn, and maybe a bottle or two from his impressive wine collection.