Big Has opens Liman, a Turkish Cypriot grill, on Green Lanes
Hasan Semay, the presenter known as Big Has, is opening his first restaurant: a coal-fired Turkish Cypriot grill and fry shop with dinners under £25.
Celebrity restaurants come in two kinds: the ones where the famous name has never been near the kitchen, and the ones where the person has wanted this for years. Hot Dinners puts Hasan Semay, better known as Big Has, firmly in the second camp.
His first bricks-and-mortar venture is Liman, billed as a Turkish Cypriot casual grill and fry shop on Green Lanes, the part of north London he grew up around. He has teamed up with his cousin and his uncle to open it.
The man behind it
According to Big Hospitality, Semay was raised in Edmonton, trained at Jamie Oliver's Fifteen, worked with Theo Randall and became head chef at Stevie Parle's Palatino in Clerkenwell. He built a following with Sunday Sessions cooking videos on YouTube, and has written two cookbooks, Big Has HOME and Smoke and Seasoned Bread. Hot Dinners adds that he is now a BBC judge.
What's on the menu
A coal-fired mangal sits at the heart of an open kitchen. Big Hospitality reports it will turn out whole grilled sea bass, chicken leg and lamb shish, plus sheftalia, the traditional Cypriot sausage made with minced meat and herbs.
The permanent fixture is a Cyprus-style döner, made from lamb and slow-cooked on a rotating spit. Liman will use the whole animal, serving a range of cuts in freshly made pitta with seasonal tomatoes and house salad.
The fryer handles glass-battered calamari, salt cod and lamb kofte, alongside chips made with Cypriot potatoes and seasoned with oregano salt. A regularly changing specials board gives Semay room to cook instinctively with ideas from his travels and the community around him.
The pitch: tracksuit friendly
Price is part of the point. "I want to give people somewhere they can come down in their tracksuit, knowing they can eat really well for less than £25," Semay says. He promises "No mystery meat, but maybe a cut you haven’t tried before that you’ll discover to be extremely delicious."
It is BYO, so you can bring your own alcohol, or choose from bottled Cypriot soft drinks.
A local story
Semay is keen to place Liman among the places that shaped him. He told Big Hospitality about the first generation of Cypriots in north London, and name-checked Dionysus in Southgate, the Yasar Halim supermarket and Aroma Patisserie in Palmers Green, where he has been going all his life. "I hope Liman will become part of our neighbourhood’s continued story and somewhere that everyone feels welcome," he said.
Hot Dinners notes that the top end of Green Lanes is a much-loved spot for Semay, who gave the site a tour for its My Manor series a few years back.
Know before you go
- Address: 91 Green Lanes, London N13 4TD
- Drinks: BYO, with Cypriot soft drinks on sale
- Budget: Semay says you can eat well for less than £25
- Follow: Instagram @limanlondon
Sources: Hot Dinners, Big Hospitality
