Crosby restaurant offers a journey through British food history
It’s not very often you will have the opportunity to dine like Henry VIII or taste the actual menu that was served on the night that the Titanic sank – but that’s what Albina are here to do. Located on Coronation Road, the restaurant opened in July 2014 and since has been on a mission to bring their diners traditional British food with an eccentric twist.
‘I always wanted to set up a restaurant,’ said entrepreneur and owner of Albina, Alex McElhoney. The business man was born and bred in neighbouring Waterloo, so he knows the area well. ‘It didn’t excite me dining out in Crosby, and I wanted to create a place I would go myself and that people could walk to. We’re a city centre restaurant in the suburbs.’
Along with Chef Patron Steven Burgess, who formerly worked at the Liverpool’s popular venue Camp and Furnace, the duo came together to form a menu that celebrates British food and has a true reflection of each dish’s history behind it.
From pure research, the restaurant takes historical influences and recipes and then reinvents them for the modern palette. ‘We’ve taken inspiration from things such as the first recipe book, The Forme of Cury, which was published in 1390, as well as using our own food knowledge to play around with different ideas. We want to serve a history of Britain on a plate.’
As well as the delicious main menu, Albina host Master of the House themed evenings where diners can enjoy events throughout the year such as ‘The Food of William Shakespeare’ or an authentic eight course feast that Henry VIII would have eaten himself. ‘It’s fun to replicate the menus as it was, staying true to the authenticity,’ he said. ‘It’s also great to play around with the funny, unique things about Britain – like the Spam fritters and alcoholic Umbongo cocktails we had at our Revival of the 1980’s evening.’
