Frieze founders open 1970s-style restaurant Toklas in London

Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, founders of the Frieze art fair, have opened a Mediterranean restaurant called Toklas at 180 The Strand in London. The brutalist building houses a bar and dining room blending 1970s aesthetics with a theater foyer, featuring artistic posters, concrete, reclaimed wood, and a nearly 300-square-meter terrace garden. The space, with intelligent lighting by designer Stafford Schmool, is highlighted by a 1933 Wolfgang Tillmans photograph of tomatoes and eggplants by a sunny pool. The restaurant seats about 100 and has hosted private events, including Slotover's daughter's wedding and dinners for galleries like David Zwirner and Rodeo. Slotover and Sharp, who stepped back from Frieze London and Frieze Masters in 2016 and left the magazine after 30 years, had long dreamed of opening a gastropub. The idea revived in 2017 when landlord Mark Wadhwa offered them extra space below Frieze's offices. The menu, by head chef Martyn Lyons (formerly of Spring and Moro), is Mediterranean with French, Spanish, Italian, and Greek influences, focusing on fish, vegetables, and seafood. A bakery, patisserie, and grocery are also planned.