Silo: Doug McMaster’s zero waste restaurant to reopen as a wine bar

Zero waste restaurant Silo has confirmed that it will reopen in Hackney Wick this month – but as a wine bar.

Chef Doug McMaster’s sustainability-focused restaurant will return on August 20 as Silo x Wine Bar, offering minimum intervention wines, cocktails and a selection of small plates.

Situated in the same space at The White Building at Crate Brewery, the bar will champion small artisan wine producers, who also adhere to Silo’s passion for zero-waste and closed loop production practices. These include the likes of Sussex-based wine producer Tillingham Wines and acclaimed producers Gut Oggau from Burgenland, Austria.

The cocktail menu will be designed by renowned bartender Ryan Chetiyawardana, using ingredients from innovative Copenhagen-based spirits distillery Empirical.

Bar snack-style dishes will include its “Siloaf” with aged butter, koji quavers and a soy egg served with lava salt. Small plates will include the “Hot 4 U” spring onion pancake; preserved tomato with fig leaf and cottage cheese; a grilled cuttlefish kebab with an umami dipping sauce; green pea naan with a roasted tomato dip; grilled flatbread with smoked aubergine and the restaurant’s smoked pork bun.

The restaurant is expected to reintroduce its full tasting menu service in winter.

“I’m delighted to be reopening Silo this month,” said McMaster. “Silo x Wine Bar is the perfect way for us to invite back guests and regulars and will help us to segue towards reopening the restaurant towards the end of the year and giving guests the full Silo experience as soon as we can.”

Silo first opened in Brighton in 2014 as “the world’s first zero waste restaurant”, before relocating to London in November 2019.

Last week, Doug McMaster and Ryan Chetiyawardana announced that their restaurant collaboration Cub would not reopen in Hoxton after closing during lockdown.