Inside The Set: A Decade of Pop-Ups Lands on Preston Road
Food Stories
Dan Kenny and Marcin Miasik have spent years cooking together without a place to truly call their own. Through residencies, pop-ups and iterations in between, they've built the kind of loyal following most restaurants take decades to earn.
When they were ready to open somewhere permanent, they didn't go looking for backers. Eighteen percent of the funds came from their own community — people who'd been coming to their tables for years.
The Set is a produce-led, Asian-influenced tasting menu. Counter seating, no printed menu, no phones. Technically serious cooking that doesn't take itself too seriously — intimate enough to feel more like a supper club than a restaurant. Dan and Marcin do the cooking. Georgia Fenwick runs front of house. Twelve covers, three people. Their first permanent home.
The space is shared across the week with Tony of Masu — Japanese BBQ and sushi omakase sitting alongside The Set's tasting menu and M.A.D. (Midweek Affordable Dinner). Different formats, different price points, one kitchen.
Getting here wasn't straightforward. Dan and Marcin first brought The Set to life at the Artist Residence Hotel on Regency Square, where it ran until the pandemic forced a rethink — to downsize or fold. Café Rust in Preston Circus offered them a way through, a generosity between independents that kept one of Brighton's best kitchens alive. That period sharpened everything. By the time they were ready for a permanent home they knew exactly what they wanted, and exactly how they wanted to do it.
The new site is on Preston Road, in the stretch leading up to Preston Circus — a neighbourhood that locals tend to talk about with a quiet kind of loyalty. Dan puts it plainly:
"It's got plenty of character and the rent is affordable — which gives small independents a real chance of success."
Once they're settled, The Set will launch Onigiri4All — a community project aimed at food poverty in Brighton. Named after the Japanese rice ball, simple and democratic, it feels entirely in keeping with how they've built everything else.
We asked Dan what he wants people to take away from a meal at The Set. "We want people to have a good night and enjoy what's on offer and come back. Eating out is about having fun — leaving people to do what they're good at and relaxing into it. Drinking and eating too much is a great thing."
Ten years in the making. 9 Preston Road. Book at thesetrestaurant.com.
