Liverpool’s first specialist gin bar and charcoal oven restaurant will open in the former Le Bateau club in the next few months.

Cedar Food and Drink will be a restaurant serving small plates and food from a large charcoal oven, which act as a centrepiece to the new venue. The bar will serve ten different gin cocktails, gin and tonics and has been labeled the first of its kind in the city.

The venue is the brainchild of former Camp & Furnace head chef Josh Moore and his business partner Alex Dunmore. Josh is also a former chef at fine dining venue London Carriage Works and has spent time in Italy learning his trade.

The pair are renovating the basement of the iconic Le Bateau and plan to open in a little over two months. The bar will offer small plates and starters in the restaurant area, as well as a selection of food cooked in the charcoal oven.

Josh says: “I’ve used charcoal in Italy and it gives a really different flavour. We want the restaurant to reach high standards of service and quality but without any pretention. I find it really easy to cook good, fresh food and we want to keep it simple. It’s all about the food and the drink.”

Meanwhile, the bar will specialise in gin; the first venue in the city to do so. After extensive research into the drink the duo want to educate people about the drink and create cocktails based on the spirit.

Josh says: “We’re going to have menu of ten different gin cocktails and ten gin and tonics. We will have 20 types of gin and we’ll match each one with cocktails and match them to the food as well.”

Typical gin cocktails include mojitos using dry ice, a clear Bloody Mary using tomato consomme and a lemongrass gin using a floral gin and infused egg white. There will even be a gin with diced red pepper, cucumber, chilli and coriander shaken in.

Alex adds: “We’ll also do other cocktails. We’ll be able to make any cocktail you like and you will be able to request one from our bar staff and we’ll make it up.”

The bar will also serve wine and beers in the bar area. The restaurant will seat between 65 and 77 people and includes an open kitchen at the bottom of the Duke Street venue.

Le Bateau, the home of Liverpool club night Liquidation, is being converted into serviced apartments in the upper floors and the basement restaurant.

Alex says: “I loved Le Bataeu. It’s a Liverpool institution. But the route we’ve gone down is totally different and we want to alter the idea of the building. We want to bring a different level of food and service to Liverpool.

“We want people to come in and ask about the food and the drink and enjoy themselves”

Cedar Food and Drink will be the second new venue to open on Duke Street in recent months, after Filter and Fox announced it would open this week. 

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