After 18 months away, the new kid on the media block has come back to his other block – and is taking it over.

The actual block being King’s Cross and his starting point being head chef of Moro in Exmouth Market, it is Oliver Rowe, also owner of Café Konstam in the King’s Cross Road, who is about to take a small step within WC1, a large one for food-loving kind.

Back from faraway Hammersmith, where he discovered what happens to over-cooked ideas (a vague franco-spanish menu), this 32 yr old, press-friendly great grandson of a German-Jewish Konstam is about to launch an original concept as Konstam at the Prince Albert,a former pub which remains,from the outside, as traditionally robust as any Albert should. This new venture,scheduled to open at the end of March, is project M25 .

And yes, it is the motorway. Because everything on Menu M25 is going to be sourced from within its circumference. From the bass caught in the Thames to potatoes grown on Rowe’s allotment in Barnet, it is all going to be from London. He’s even managed to track down a sparkling white wine made from grapes grown in Cobham.

Thanks to some very pro-active PR, more of a dimension than a campaign, Rowe’s enterprise is to be the subject of a multi-part BBC 2 series. Needless to say, it is the Konstam brand rather than the menu which is making the 100 yard leap from post-modern greasy spoon with Evening Standard acclaim to full TV stardom – only the mushrooms grown in polytunnels beneath the North Circular in East Ham will be common to both establishments.

As one bag of London’s mushrooms adorns a great English cooked breakfast (two spoonfuls of bubble included), its metropolytunnelled cousins will be coping with this exposure along with the chickens (Sarratt), flour (Ponders End), herbs and vegetables (Denham) ,honey (Tower Hill) ,lamb and pork (Amersham) ,fish (Canvey Island) ,beer (Wandsworth) and again, the wine – that’s dry white and rose from the Painshill Park Trust . And olive oil is there too – as rapeseed,thanks to a locally sourced oil press. Salt is from Essex. The only exceptions will be Tea ,coffee and pepper and spices. The ostrich is not an exception and is one of the many secrets of the “north European’ menu now kept under wraps somewhere near Kings Cross.

Additional to the indivisibility of gimmick, marketing, BBC and organic , Konstam the Concept also taps into the increasing concern,environmental and nutritional, over food miles This year the average Christmas dinner travelled an exhausting 43,000 miles in order to be with us – with the cranberries from the USA or the carrots (predominantly from Morocco) being the long haulers almost certainly in need of chemical support. Here, at Kings Cross,epicentre of commuters and Eurotravel,is the allure of that rare touch of the native and the homegrown. The Soil Association
will be rooting for its success.

So, while Rowe’s firstborn,the Cafe, has been beautifully designed and deserves its fascinating mix of loyal locals – from the girls at the next door massage parlour , the British Library or Gagosian gallery, it is a very small and well mirrored space in desperate need of expansion or concept redeployment. Konstam at the Prince Albert will serve that function very soon.

Furthermore,on the subject of blocks,Oliver Rowe’s enterprise is well timed to capitalize on the new Eurostar terminal and the emergence of a very large development. The gentry of King Cross will soon be able to enjoy the good honest fare of their Victorian forefathers – not with the help of loyal staff this time around – and with the potatoes grown by the chef himself.

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