Enterprise Inns leasehold the Great North Wood, formerly the Norwood Hotel, opens later this month, and Willoughby hopes it will be the first of several.
“I'm bringing the concept, City Glen is bringing the sites and the development,” he said. “The demographic in south-east London is changing massively and there's a lot more money around than there used to be.”
Willoughby, who runs Crème de la Crêpe in Covent Garden and street food markets in Soho, has brought in chefs from Terroirs restaurant in Charing Cross, and promises food that's “not incredibly fancy, but fun and delicious”.
Each day will feature just four main dishes, changing according to what's fresh and available, and the offer will be “very heavy on bar snacks,” he said.
Draft menu
A draft snack menu, available on the pub's Facebook page, includes a bucket of fries with curry sauce (£4), toad-in-the-hole with onion gravy (£5) and mussels cooked in ale with crusty bread (£7).
“It will be almost like tapas, 10 to 15 snacks always changing, things like posh chops with truffle oil and Parmesan, and lots of buckets and boards. We want people to use the pub as their local, and we want it to be affordable.”
The Great North Wood, the original name of Norwood, will also serve brunch from 10am on Saturdays and Sundays.
The pub has been completely stripped out and an island bar built with a 20m long counter “as wide as a dining table” to encourage customers to eat at the bar. The furniture is made out of scaffolding planks.
Willoughby has been inviting local people for viewings and tastings while the work has been going on, and “the feedback has been unbelievable,” he said. Future customers have already chosen their favourite beers from local microbrewers to go on the bar.