Little Bat, 6th May

Little Bat is Callooh Callay’s little sister and you would think that people would be all over it. But, sitting as it does, off the main strip of ‘Supper Street’ in Angel, it seems to have avoided the attention of the masses. Primetime on a Friday night (9:30 pm), the place had patrons, but you could easily walk in and be seated at a comfy booth rather than sitting up at the bar. I do like sitting up at the bar but sometimes a cosier seating arrangement is more appropriate. Say, if you were on a date, for example.

While I waited for mine to arrive I perused the menu. Compared to some menus these days, there was a huge amount of choice on offer making a decision rather difficult. My friend helped me out by picking for me (and luckily he has good taste) so I had the G & T martini – gin, rose-infused vermouth and crème de violet being the main ingredients. My companion had an old fashioned because he is a man and that is what men drink. There were so many drinks that sounded interesting, I wanted to try them all but picked the hedgerow smash for my second – rye, bourbon hedgerow cordial and black walnut bitters! I was really pleased with both of my drinks – strong but tasty – not too floral or fruity for my tastes. The old fashioned was met with approval buy my friend’s second drink – An Apple a Day – he felt was bordering on bitter and medicinal tasting, rather than the apple pie in a drink you might expect.

It may not feel quite as quirky as Callooh Callay, lacking the ‘secret entrance’ that the other has, but if you want somewhere that has the same inventinveness that Callooh Callay brings, without having to worry about whether you’ll get in, then this is the bar for you.  

Places to throw a party!

Every now and then I do some serious research for particular nights - before New Year's Eve I will investigate everywhere I can think of for the night out, and list their features so I can decide which best fits my bill. Most recently I've done it for my birthday. What with running a meetup, I've acquired a fair few friends over the last couple of years and I thought I'd have enough people to hire a private room rather than just booking an area. So I started finding places I liked and I thought I'd share it with you:

Bohemia, Hackney

This is where I ended up choosing. They have a small cafe in the day that you can have completely for yourself for a minimum spend of 550. They can fit up to 60 with tables, up to 100 probably without and you can have full use of their PA system, mics, bring in a DJ and even decorate a bit if you like! I'm not bothering - I think the inside is nice enough as it is. You need to put down a 100 pound deposit in advance.

Dead Dolls House/Dead Dolls Club
The newish Dead Dolls Club at The Arch has a private area that overlooks the rest of the bar so you'd be subject to the same music everyone else is listening to. The Dead Dolls House has various areas you can have completely to yourself, depending on whether you just want drinks or a sit-down meal as well.

Callooh Callay
I love this place, with its quirky decor and cocktails. They have a couple of places you can hire out - through the wardrobe or the upstairs bar. The Upstairs holds 30 people and there's a minimum spend of 1500 pounds though that can be spent on food, drink and the service charge (and the cocktails aren't cheap so you'll probably get through it quicker than you think!). You have to put down a 30% deposit.

The Looking Glass
Another cocktail bar, and this one doesn't even have a minimum spend! Nor a hire charge. All they ask is for a deposit in case of cancellation, and you can get a part of, or even the whole area through the Looking glass depending on how many of you there are.

Mr Buckley's
They have a basement bar that you can again, have either part of, or the whole thing if there are enough of you. There's a minimum spend if you want the whole thing, otherwise there isn't but other people are free to wander down. Didn't get as far as finding out what the minimum spend was.

House of Wolf
I was *this* close to picking House of Wolf because it's such a cool, weird, splendiferous venue. THey have several rooms available - I had my eye on The Apothecary Bar (which also has the secret room) which would have been a 200 pound deposit and 1000 minimum spend before midnight. You would also be able to have your own music playing but after midnight they open it up to everyone and it would play the same music as the rest of the venue. Can take up to 40 people.

Paradise Inn
This can be hired privately but I didn't get as far as to ask for how much or really any other details as I'd pretty much decided on Bohemia by this point.

Tipsy Bar 
See above

The Macbeth
The Macbeth has an upstairs which is available to hire. It can take up to 60 people standing, there's a £1000 minimum spend and it requires a £100 deposit. 

The Star of Bethnal Green
This place has an upstairs that can be hired for £150 though you require at least 40 people to be able to hire it privately. There is then only a £750 minimum spend - not bad! 

The Red Lion, Hoxton
I didn't even think this place would do private hire but I found it on Barchick's list of private hire places. I was tempted by this one because it's a pretty cool, shabby old pub, laid back. You can hire one of the upstairs rooms and get access to its roof terrace. It can take up to 70 people and there's a minimum spend but I didn't end up enquiring about it because, it is such a basic pub - the wine is cheap and the beers aren't extensive. 

Other places to note: Shaker & Co, Pub on the Park, Far Rockaway...

Where have you hired and was it any good? Let me know!

Beard to Tail, 8th October

To post or not to post? That was the question. As you can see I have gone with the former, and sincerely hope this is not bad blogger etiquette. You see, at the end of the meal I noticed that every table but ours had a little folded card on it. Thinking it might contain some specials we’d missed out on, I got my friend to grab one from the next table. It turned out it was a note, telling diners that their meal would be discounted by 50% but with a plea to customers not to blog or tweet about the place while it was still finding its feet. They suggested people come back again once everything had been got down pat. And it wasn’t that our table hadn’t had one of these cards, it was just that my other friend had moved it out of the way to another table before I’d seen it. 

I had from the outset intended to blog about the place. Now what was I to do? Succumb to their imploration, or proceed? What was the right thing to do? The fair thing? Something about their note seemed a little off – they know people rely on word of mouth, twitter and blogs these days, and they were trying to circumvent the system. I was sure they wouldn’t mind if people blogged about it if they enjoyed it, but it rather seemed like they didn’t have much faith in themselves if they were asking for no reviews. Unfortunately, having already eaten by the time I saw this, I knew their lack of faith was understandable – the meal was not a huge success. Surely people have a right to know, and not just hear only positive reviews?

But then again, maybe they did have the right to iron out the kinks before inviting criticism. Maybe it wouldn’t be right to ‘badmouth’ the place and put off other people who would, by going, otherwise allow Beard to Tail to get things right in the end. After all, they were offering a 50% discount to diners to compensate them for being guinea pigs. Or... Could it be seen as a bribe not to say anything bad about the place? We, as it happens, were getting the meal completely free because my boyfriend had won their facebook competition to name a pig. There was a bit of a gap between us winning and them opening and they did need a gentle reminder as to what the prize was - a meal for four (not two as they'd though) and a welcome drink.

Anyway, what has decided me to post was the fact that they’ve had two practice runs in the form of their pop-up in the summer and a couple of weeks ago, and by all accounts they were successful. I knew it was their first night and wouldn’t have been surprised if there were few upsets as they get to grips with things. But I thought these were more likely to be with staff not knowing the systems or the menu yet, or the speed of food being brought to the table being slow as they struggled to cope with demand. I did not expect the food to be the letdown, again, because they had cooked many of these things at their pop-up. The rump pumpy especially seemed to be a hit both times.

So, let me get down to the review proper. 

Sadly I think these doors have been replaced with real ones

We were rather amused by the outside. Apparently the doors haven’t yet turned up, nor the windows, but they have opened regardless. I hesitated only a moment, before we pushed open the doors which told us to “Come on through!”. This slightly unfinished look carried on throughout the restaurant, though the bits that were done, like the 2 pence wall, were impressive. The smell of paint was quite prevalent, and the bathroom still had a touch of debris, with builder’s marks on the unfinished walls, but to be honest, we cared not a jot about all that. We knew it was the first night and that they’d said things were a little ‘work in progress’. We only cared about the food. 

I was surprised that the place wasn’t full – the pop-ups seemed to have been so popular. But it was a rainy Monday so maybe that had put people off. Or maybe because their second pop-up was so recent, the novelty had already worn off a bit. The staff were very friendly, joking about the pig we’d named and why it wasn’t running around the restaurant. Our waiter was attentive, and came along at appropriate intervals to check if we needed anything else. He didn’t seem to know what the deal was with our free meal – he thought we were getting 50% off but when we told him what we’d been told, he excused himself to quickly confirm this. No harm, no foul. Then I read that card at the end of the evening saying all diners were privileged to 50% off their food bill, and realised he hadn’t been offering us what he thought was our prize at all, just what everyone else was being given!

For starters, I had the steak tartar (my first ever, above), Stephen and Luke shared the ribs and stuffed pig’s trotter between them. Katherine had the mussels with bacon. The ribs were very tasty. They weren’t the kind of ribs you’d expect in a ‘downhome’ BBQ joint, they were ribs ‘restaurant style’ - less messy and with the extra BBQ sauce coming in a little jug on the side. This I thought was terrific, although Katherine wasn’t a fan. On the downside, the ribs were sort of lukewarm, they could definitely have done with being hotter when brought to the table. The same, unfortunately, was said about the trotter, and they weren't overwhelmed by the taste. My friend said her mussels were good, but the bacon was all lumped in her first few mussels – misleading her into thinking they were all so generously sprinkled. And she wished there was some bread to soak up the rest of the lovely sauce. I liked my steak tartar which came with some cornichons and a little quail’s egg on top. It was very gherkiny, could maybe have done with a bit more seasoning (I applied more salt and pepper) but I was happy with it. Not that I have a frame of reference, but steak tartar hadn’t previously been high on my agenda to order, yet on the basis of this one, I would try others. I think that’s not too shabby at all. 

For mains, Stephen and I ordered the rumpy pumpy to share,

Luke got the pulled beef featherblade, and Katherine got ribs. 

Luke seemed to like his featherblade and it did look delicious*, I wish I'd tried it. The rumpy pumpy - the star of the show during Beard to Tail’s pop-ups - was a bit of a let down. It was massive, which was definitely impressive – we had no problems sharing it with our other two companions and still finding it difficult to finish. The texture was fine, just fine, though we think it would have benefitted with a little longer at a lower temperature in order to render the fat down more, make it a little more tender, and the crackling a little crunchier. It is apparently marinated in some herbs and such before being cooked, and these flavours did come through. But then you would be overwhelmed by the saltiness. It must be said you did not simply get a mass of pork on a plate. It came with apple sauce in a little pot and a jus in a little jug. When you added this to the pork, it cut through the saltiness quite successfully and it was all a pleasing combination. But you really did NEED those extras, it would have been a chore to eat the meat without them, and for this reason I think they could have been a little more generous with these accompaniments. We also ordered some chips and a side of bubble and squeak. Both well executed, my only complaint being that they were quite dear for the portion size. That little disc of bubble and squeak was supposed to be £4.50! It was barely five mouthfuls.

This makes it look bigger than it was

One more minor gripe – we were allowed a welcome drink with our free meal. We enquired as to the restrictions and were told it could be anything. We all, of course, ordered cocktails. Mine was delicious - the Derby Pie - and my favourite of the evening (we’d been to Callooh Callay and 98 Bar and Lounge beforehand), which was no surprise really as the people who own Beard to Tail are also behind Callooh Callay. Stephen and I then ordered another drink during dinner – a beer and a wine. When our bill came, they charged us for two cocktails. Clearly, they had given us for free the cheaper drinks.

So yes, the place didn’t leave me wanting to gush about it, the whole experience as prize winners wasn’t quite what it could have been, what with the waiter not knowing that we were getting a free meal in the first place, and then charging us for the more expensive drinks niggled, especially as they didn’t mention they would do that at any point.

Desserts looked good, but we were so full from our mains and starters that we decided not to go for them, and based on the previous I wasn’t convinced they would blow me away either.

I was disappointed, but they are, as they say, in their infancy – there is plenty of time for them to improve things. I appreciated that they had evaluation forms to fill in at the end of the night. We tried to be honest, and reasonable. Hopefully they will take some of the comments into consideration.

I feel I should go back in a month or two to see if things have changed. The problem is, on the basis of last week’s performance, do I want to? I suppose it would be a shame never to give their desserts a shot, and the brunch menu looks like it has potential...

And what do you think? Was I right to ‘publish and be damned’ or should I have respected their requests?

*I have been informed, just yesterday, that Luke did not think his featherblade was delicious - he thought it tasted like the inside of a pasty. Oh dear.

Cocktail crawl, Saturday 24th September

I met my friend Alison at her hotel room where we commenced the beginning of a two week period of festivities, celebrating that we will get copious amounts of talking done face to face (a rarity for us as she lives in the States). To get us in the mood I brought with me a bag of goodies: cheese straws, two toffee apple cupcakes from Hummingbird (the best place for cupcakes), a bottle of Prosecco and some peach puree for making bellinis. It lent the afternoon quite a decadent feel. We prettied ourselves up and finished off the last of the peach puree with some Patron tequila Alison happened to stuff her boots with. Not the best ‘cocktail’ in the world, but we’re nothing if not stoic when it comes to imbibing alcohol.

We were ready to embark on our cocktail crawl and headed across town to the first destination.

The Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town

This way to the Thrills

I’m now somewhat torn here because part of the appeal about going to this place is it has this one gimmick, which makes it feel like a properly hidden away illicit drinking den. I already knew what this gimmick was, and my friend didn’t. I did appreciate it, but I could see the sheer delight on her face when the trick up their sleeve was revealed and I wouldn’t want to rob anyone of that experience. So, let’s just say, the entrance isn’t what you think. Once you have been granted access, a neon sign kindly points you in the right direction for the ‘Thrills’. We got there at about 7:30, an hour later than planned and we had a choice of two seating areas – by the bar or at a little table. We took the bar option. Experience has taught us to be as close to the people serving you alcohol as possible, and also that bartenders are often hot, so why not sit where you can look at them more easily. We ordered the chilli and lemongrass margarita. It was elegantly served in the correct glasses, with a thin strip of lemongrass threaded through a slice of chilli as garnish. It was pleasantly warm and a perfectly drinkable drink. Time ticked away quickly and we realised we had to hot foot it to the next place if we wanted to keep to schedule. Just as we were finishing up, the barkeep was putting together another cocktail, when all of a sudden, the raspberry concoction was all over the bar, not in its glass where it should be. I managed to move my bag out the way and partially my body but the drink still managed to get my leg and part of my skirt. I went to the bathroom to clean it up while Alison settled the bill. I came back and asked if we’d been given any compensation but apart from a genuine apology, we didn’t manage to get any freebies out of it. That’s a black mark in my opinion.



The Whistling Shop

So, it was now 8:30. We had 9:00 reservations at Callooh Callay, but the original plan was to go to the Whistling Shop before that. We debated about whether we could really squeeze it in, and rather rashly, decided we could and we would. In all honesty, we couldn’t, but we did it anyway. We walked up to Worship Street, walking much further up and farther away from the populated area than I was expecting. We walked in and I instantly regretted having spent so long in Scaredy Cat Town and missing out on being able to make the most of this place. It was all dark wood and tea lights, and even though it didn’t have a hidden entrance, walking inside made you feel like you were entering some tucked away, little known place. We told the guy who greeted us that we were on a tight schedule and needed to get a drink as quickly as possible. They asked us why the rush and when we told them, agreed that we really shouldn’t miss out on those reservations and were fully behind getting us served and out again as quickly as possible. The cocktail list sounded amazing. They take a ‘scientific’ approach to cocktailing making, apparently experimenting with different flavour combinations in their laboratory. Many of the cocktails include ingredients like “WS2 exhaustion tonic”, which are mixtures of their own invention and require a glossary at the back of the menu to figure out what they are. We wanted to make as much of the choices available as we could, so we ordered different drinks to each other - House Gin Fizz and the Panacea.

House Gin Fizz: Tanqueray gin, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, vanilla salt, orange bitters, soda
Panacea: Compass Box whisky, honey and lavender shrub, lemon juice, sage dust.

Yes, sage dust.

Both were enjoyable to drink and had an interesting taste, with a creamy topping, but I think Alison and I preferred the Panacea, probably because it was so unlike any other drink we’d had before. The gin fizz was nice (and very quaffable once we realised we’d gone past our imposed 10 minute time limit) but it was just a gin fizz. Nothing as cool as sage dust in it. The cocktails backed up my instinctive reaction that we should have spent more time here. The downside is that the drinks are quite pricey, and the place was eerily empty. There was one other group in there, but otherwise the place was dead. I assume this is because it feels like it’s in the middle of nowhere, even though Shoreditch is only a few streets away.



Callooh Callay

We raced out of there and into the night again. In totally the wrong direction. We came out onto a street I had hoped was going to be either Bishopsgate or Great Eastern and was in fact Moorgate. My sense of direction is obliterated once I drink and Alison doesn’t know the area. A taxi came by and we made the executive decision to get in it. We told him the street name and the venue. It was 9:05. He hadn’t heard of Callooh Callay but he did know the street. Two minutes later, he pulled over, stopped the clock and confessed he couldn’t remember how to get there. 30 seconds later and he’d dredged his memory and we were on our way again.

Cassette tapes are used as wallpaper

We made it at about 9:15. We weren’t too drunk by this point and had been sensible enough to call when we knew we were going to be late and tell them we were lost but on our way. Got to the door and presented ourselves to the doorman. Our names weren’t on the list. I think you’ll agree that it was all going really well by this point. However, I wasn’t too worried. I had email confirmation of our reservations and they had called me the day before to confirm (always a nice touch and something that should happen more often in this country) and I’d spoken to someone who seemed to be expecting us just 10 minutes earlier on the phone. Soon enough, the manager came out and let us in. He also complimented me on my outfit, so it more than made up for the few minutes’ wait at the door. We were then led through the throng and indeed through the looking glass (or rather, fake wardrobe) to the Jub Jub bar at the back, only available for those with reservations.  We had many, many cocktails, and I really can’t remember what on earth they were. The menu also changes regularly so I can’t even look it up to remind myself. It had lots of nice, quirky touches, like the cocktail list being on a comic strip, and having reservations meant we were waited on at the table instead of going to the bar, which makes such a nice change when you’re out drinking. We had pre-ordered food, which arrived about 15 minutes after we did. We ate mini brie quiches, goat’s cheese bruschetta, lime, chilli and ginger crab spoons and some tarragon salted, buttery popcorn. All absolutely delicious, if a little underfilling. We thought about ordering some more food but in the end ordered more cocktails to fill us up instead. As we were sitting there, a waiter went by with a massive bowl flanked by what looked like four little gnomes. This, I think was the £55 cocktail you could order to share between 6 of you, which I think we also did see a group of maybe 5 boys finishing off when we arrived.

The original plan was to move on to yet another cocktail bar (Ninety Eight bar and lounge), but we were so comfortable there, the drinks were coming at a pleasing rate and were doing their job on our sobriety so we just stayed there instead until about 12:00.

But we couldn’t stay there all night – we had dancing on the agenda. So we walked round to The Book Club. I’ve already been here a couple of times, they have quite a varied programme of nights on. I’d been there for a hip hop mashup night hosted by Scroobius Pip and I went to Bookstock, the street party they hosted. So I thought their Rock n roll Saturday night would be worthwhile. Unfortunately, so did a lot of other people and when we got there, there was a not insubstantial queue. We considered our other options, especially as time was ticking on, it was £5 entrance fee and it only stayed open until 2. But that was the case with most of the other places I could think of so we waited it out, got in and made the most of the hour and a half we had in there. We befriended these three guys who were in the queue in front of us, and then turned up at the bar when we were, and we bebopped about a bit with them. All too quickly the lights were being turned up and we had to leave. I never had the slightest intention of going home so early and had scoured the internet to find somewhere to finish our night. I came across somewhere I’d never heard of but fit exactly the bill. Originally I had planned that we would go to The Bathhouse in Liverpool Street, only to find that they were closing two weeks before I planned to go. They play rock and roll/retro music and now I was in the mood for that kind of thing. The Book Club happened to do it, but as we’ve just covered, only stayed open until 2. I needed more. And I needed it to be within easy reach of Shoreditch so that we didn’t waste time and money getting there. It took me a while, but I finally unearthed Ye Olde Axe.



Ye Olde Axe

Apparently this place is a strip club. It’s just up the road from Brown’s so I can believe that. It also has a phenomenally large bouncer, which I consider evidence of stripping taking place. But when the clock strikes midnight, that element of it shuts down and it turns into a rockabilly venue. And it stays open until 6 am(ish). We headed up there, with a new addition to the party (one of the guys we’d met at The Book Club. I’d heard that this is where everyone heads when all the other venues have shut so I was a little worried we wouldn’t get in, or it would be too crowded to be enjoyable, but my fears were unwarranted. It’s an odd venue. A bit like the Horse & Groom, it’s clearly just a pub (I think I remember beams and banquettes), that happens to stay open late, plays great music and people dance. At least, I think they do. I would ask the honourable reader to remember that my companion and I had started drinking at about half four in the afternoon, and so by the time we reached Ye Olde Axe, my memory faculties weren’t firing on all cylinders. I know they were playing music I liked, from the 50s and 60s era, but the only song I can actually remember is ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’, chiefly because Alison and I engaged in a bit of playful lesbian writhing. It’s understandable – that song is pure sex. My abiding memory is of thinking this place was great and knowing it was now going to become my official ‘go to’ place for the after hours in Shoreditch.

Once again we stayed until basically, we were made to go, and then we went our separate ways. The night had finished, over 12 hours after it had begun.

Sunday 25th September

As a footnote, I want to add that we spent the afternoon and evening of Sunday at The Book Club again. It doesn’t get its own entry because ‘if it’s not on the list, it’s not going in’ but it’s worth a mention. We discovered they do bloody lovely Sunday Roasts. And they’re bloody huge as well. My friend and I shared one and didn’t even finish it between us. They also do ‘DIY’ bloody marys so you can make them as spicy as you like. Apparently they play blues in the downstairs bit starting from about 7 but it was 9 pm before I remembered we had wanted to see what that was like, and we were pretty comfortable where we were. I’d highly recommend it.