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!

Mother Kelly's and Dead Dolls Club, 13th June

Bethnal Green used to be a pretty scutty place. But then it seemed that Shoreditch sprang a leak, with cool new bars and restaurants (Sager and Wilde, which I may have mentioned once or twice, Clutch) springing up on Hackney Road, which joins Old Street to Bethnal Green. And this spread further with Satan’s Whiskers opening on Cambridge Heath Road, and that has now been joined by the new home of the Dead Dolls Club, plus the redevelopment of the arches by Bethnal Green station. And so now… well, Bethnal Green is still pretty scutty, but you get the impression that it might not be for long.

Putting aside how I feel about the spread of Shoreditch to the east and what that might mean for rental prices in my area, I’m pretty happy to have so many lovely new places a mere stop away from my flat.

On Friday the plan was to go to the Dead Dolls Club to see Kansas Smitty’s jazz band and maybe stop in on the Craft Cocktail Co on the way. Which is what I thought we were doing as we approached an open arch I hadn’t seen before, stocked full of bottles. On closer inspection they were beer bottles, not cocktails and actually we had discovered Mother Kelly’s, which could easily become a favourite of mine even though I don’t like beer.

This place is a beer kingdom – they have six fridges with bottles of all kinds available (to drink in or take away for a 25% discount), and on top of this they have 20 more beers and ciders on tap! They serve one red wine, one white, one champagne, and keep food to a minimal but well-chosen offering of meat and cheese boards. I tried a bottled cider I hadn’t had before and followed this up with a white wine just to see how much attention they’d paid to it. It was unusual – very fruity and verging on sweet, quite soft and round. Very different to the wines I normally drink but not unpleasant. The beer on draft is served in 2/3 pints in the main, but they're priced accordingly so you're not getting gypped.

We then headed up to the Dead Dolls Club at about 10 pm, which is when I knew the band were meant to be taking to the stage.

Dead Dolls Club

And so, to another arch, namely The Arch, where Dead Dolls Club are in residence for the foreseeable. You step through its little café-like foyer and into the main room.

At first, we were underwhelmed. There was no one in there and the whole place felt sparse and cold. I’ve been to the Dead Dolls House and the original Dead Dolls Club and was expecting something more homely, the same stencils on the wall, the same feeling of being in a quirky parlour. I was disappointed. This felt like what it was - a railway arch.

But still, we took a seat and got a couple of cocktails and waited while the band warmed up. I had an espresso martini (if you follow the DDC on Twitter, you’ll know they’re quite proud of them) and Stephen had an old fashioned. We were both very pleased with our drinks – mine had a very strong coffee flavour that completely threw me off how much alcohol was in it. After three of these I was pretty sloshed and I don’t say that often about cocktails. I probably should have had some of Checkon's chicken to soak it up - we saw people chowing on buckets of the stuff and it looked pretty good. Stephen stuck to cocktails the whole night, having a julep and a negroni to follow up.

Kansas Smitty finally took to the stage and didn’t waste any time in whipping up some liveliness. They are a jazz band in the speakeasy, 20s-40s sense, not in the strokey-beardy 60s beatnik sense and they were brilliant! They followed up their frenetic start with something a little mellower but in general the whole set was up tempo and got people on their feet.

The place had begun to fill by this point. I don’t know if people were filing in specifically to see the band or if this just happens to be when the DDC gets busy but with the crowds the space came into its own. It’s clearly a place for dancing and merriment, rather than refinement, and the sparkly lights and humongous glitter ball now made sense. We had noted the rather utilitarian chairs and fixtures but who cares about those when there’s dancing to be had. I understood their thinking now.

We loved the band and were having a lot of fun – so much so that our original plan of getting the last tube home went out the window. Of course, this doesn’t mean quite so much when we were only a ten minute bus ride from home, but it is meant to illustrate that we liked the place. 

Dead Dolls House, 23rd August

I FINALLY got to Dead Dolls House, the new venture by the people behind Dead Dolls Club last Friday night. Every time I made plans to get there, something would crop up to divert me. But I am glad I got there in the end as it is absolutely lovely.

We made it out of the house at about 8:30 and Shoreditch was absolutely heaving. Everyone already seemed wasted. But Stephen and I only really wanted a quiet drink as we had an all-day event on the Saturday so we didn't want to be hungover.

Luckily, Dead Dolls House is a members' bar of sorts. In the first couple of weeks before it opened you could become a member simply by registering your interest (as I did). But if you missed this window then membership is still free - they just request you bring them a gift to make them smile, or add to the beauty of the House. Being a members' bar of course means that you're already going to get a reduced amount of traffic as they don't just let anyone in. Even if they did, unless you already knew the place was there, you never would guess from the outside. To enter you have to ring the doorbell and then the sartorially fabulous doorman will let you in and check whether you have a card already, or need to collect one. If you haven't been before, he'll give you the lowdown on what's on what floor. 

We immediately went to explore a little. The whole place is decorated in the same style as the Dolls Club - absolutely gorgeous stencilling on the walls and pretty lights (see above). The ground floor has a bar and some seating for drinking or eating. Upstairs is the 'dining room' which was empty on this occasion, clearly everyone was more interested in drinking than eating. One floor above this was another bar and then at the very top was a 'bloomin marvellous' roof terrace 'shod' with astroturf and on which blankets (provided) could be unfurled for some al fresco drinking. It was lovely up there, looking down on the revellers who probably had no notion you were up there.

Stephen and I got a couple of drinks from the upstairs bar from the specials board. I had the Baroness - gin, cointreau, peach and lemon. Stephen had the Madame Rose which featured lillet blanc and rose liqueur. We then tried to pay by card but the bartender didn't have a reader upstairs so we had to open a tab. Paying by card was not their strong suit, as when I then tried to add on to our tab later, I was sent upstairs to retrieve it. Then, once I'd ordered, downstairs, the girl had to do some 'ballet' with the card reader to actually get a signal and debit my card. She cheerily complained that they didn't have their own wifi and 'can you imagine what it's like when it's really busy' but it seemed she said this with gritted teeth. 

Stephen and I went for the rum-based cocktail with creme de cacao and maraschino, which apparently hardly ever gets ordered. The girl behind the bar had never had to make it herself before. But she did a very fine job and I thought it was very tasty, probably my favourite of the night - people, get it on your lists.

Dead Dolls House is very gin-centric, which might be why a rum cockrail gets overlooked. As well as the special cocktails they have a page devoted to the different gins they stock, which they will pair with the tonic of your choice and garnish according to the type of gin you have ordered. (I.e., orange peel might go better, or a sprig of rosemary, with lime.) 

We had three drinks in total, which means we sampled almost all of the specials. My last  was a beer cocktail combing kraken (rum again - I love it) and amaretto, ginger and lime. Stephen had the Admiral Bloom (gin, cointreau, lime, strawberries). 

We both very much enjoyed the couple of hours we were in there. It was just what we wanted. I understand it tends to be livelier and there seemed to be enough space to handle a lot more people than were in on the night without it being uncomfortable. We still managed to meet one colourful character who we ended up chatting to - he was into the whole jive/lindy-hop scene and was persuading us to get some lessons and get involved. Then we all went outside to marvel at his bike, which can only be described as bitchin'.

I will definitely be making the Dead Dolls House a local of sorts, it's shaping up to be the area's hottest 'secret'. Each week they have a different pop-up street food trader in the house, as they do at Dead Dolls Club, so there's always a reason to return if you're more interested in food than drink. We didn't end up getting any food - my cocktail did enough to conquer my appetite but the lobster rolls from Roll Up Roll Up that other people were getting looked delicious. 

The Haggerston, 4th May

After our meal at the Dead Dolls Club, it was time for what everyone does on a Saturday night - drinking. And the Haggerston, a pub I had yet to get to, was just a few doors down. 

It was pretty busy when we rolled in at around 9:30. Standing room only which meant the place had pretty good vibes. There was a selection of various foreign beers that I wasn't at all interested in but I'm pleased to report that the house white wine was very pleasant. This place is 'cool' which meant that of course they couldn't serve their wine in a wine glass but a tumbler instead. Now, I'm used to this because I do tend to go to places that eschew boring old normal glassware but I must admit I do like my wine in a wine glass. If for no other reason than it makes you appreciate that it's wine you are drinking. When it's served in a tumbler it is all too easy to drink it like you would some juice and be done with it before you've even realised it. Of course, this is probably half the idea.

Anyway, the crowd were pretty young and the music was up. It wasn't too loud to talk - chatting amongst a foursome was doable without having to shout. 

And then after about an hour we managed to nab a booth on the side, which was even better as we weren't out for the long haul and wouldn't be dancing any time soon although some of the people in there might have been swaying about a bit with half an intention of turning that swaying into fully fledged dance moves with another couple of drinks. 

We stayed for a few hours in the end but I'd have happily stayed until it shut and would return - I can see an evening of ribs from Duke's and drinks here in my future...

Dead Dolls Club, 4th May

Finally got myself down to the Dead Dolls Club the other weekend, this venue that had reached magical, enormous proportions in my mind. I follow them on twitter, and the tweets about the food provided by The Foragers had filled my brain with images of an outside grotto with gnarly trees and fairy lights hanging from above adjoined to a warehousey/cafe in front where the drinking and perhaps dancing happened.

It was nothing of the sort. I booked a place for us at 8 because it was a Saturday and because it's something of a novelty these days to be able to book. It probably wasn't strictly necessary but it did mean we got a table to ourselves rather than sharing, which is always nice.

The place was almost the opposite of what I envisioned. Completely missable from the front, only the most subtle of signs (and knowing the address) told you you were at your destination. Stepping inside did feel like stepping into a dollhouse writ large - or a stylised version of what a child might think a parlour should look like, with drawings of wallpaper all over the walls making it feel very quaint and picturesque. Other odd touches (see below) made you feel like you had stepped out of reality. Instantly I was charmed.

Little hands holding the lamps

The menu is a 'grazing' menu, which basically means that it's part of the slightly passe vogue for small plates. Our companions I don't think realised this at first and were astounded at how cheap everything was, because all the plates were about £7.50. That soon adds up when they're recommending two to three plates per person but it does mean you end up getting a better idea of the food overall. 

Everything on the menu sounded pretty good to me and we had a hard time choosing. To help things along I inquired about the 'special' cocktail of the day - only £6.50 compared to the normal £9.00. It was something mixing rum and cointreau and after that I kind of stopped listening as I'd heard enough to convince me. I think she might have also said it was 'strong' so I ordered one forthwith. It was very tasty and served in a cute little glass that reminded me of a squat old-style champagne glass. You know, the one modelled on a lady's fair bosom.

Finally we reached a consensus about what we wanted - we decided to go for two plates each plus two portions of chips to share.

I had the venison and ramson (had no idea what ramson was - still don't - but it sounded interesting) bourguignon and the scallops.

Both Stephen and Kevin had the wood pigeon (Stephen had been set on having wood pigeon in some form - the menu we'd seen beforehand had it as a burger) and Kev also had the venison bourguignon. Stephen had the muttom ham as his second.

Karin, our fish-eating vegetarian friend ordered the salmon ceviche and the mushroom and parmesan arincini.

Arancini

When the food came out, it met with mixed appreciation. My pan-fried scallops with caramelised onion puree, apple puree, parsnip puree along with some sort of leaf (probably the foraged bit) was probably my favourite scallop dish out of all those I've eaten. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

The venison bourguignon was pretty boring though - it could easily have been beef rather than venison and I wished I'd saved some of my puree or had some bread to go with it. On its own it was a bit much. I didn't even bother to take a picture as they hadn't done anything with its presentation. Just imagine a stew you'd made at home and I'm sure you'll have an accurate picture.

Stephen didn't enjoy his wood pigeon very much, which he said was quite overcooked. I had a bite and agreed it was, although I still thought the taste was good and went some way to salvaging it. Kev, on the other hand, to be fair, liked both of his dishes.

LIke me, Stephen's other dish he liked very much. His mutton ham came with buttered leeks, hazelnuts and hedge garlic. But it was really just a charcuterie plate and not very substantial though as you can see the presentation was quite something and it did taste very good.

Karin's salmon (marinated in sloe gin and herbs,served with crunchy fennel and a coriander, lemon, orange and stonecrop dressing) was a lovely light dish which she very much enjoyed and the bite that I had was great. She said her arancini were heavy on the cheese (a very good thing) and seemed to like them very much. (I avoided them as they were mushroom-based. Down with mushrooms!)

The chips which apparently had chilli and ramson salt on them, were very good chips, nice and thick, cooked properly throughout, although, thinking about it now I don't recall much seasoning on them beyond normal salt. Still, they were good at the time.

I think two dishes plus half a portion of chips was just right, but it probably depends on which you ordered. For me it was fine. If I'd had the scallops with the ham though, I probably would have been hungry.

The desserts on the menu didn't make any of us feel we'd regret not sampling them, and so we ordered a cheese board to share at £10. There was just enough to have a nibble and I, despite not being a blue-cheese eater, quite liked both the blue cheeses but was too shy to ask what they were. Out waitress was also very obliging about giving us some extra bread as a normal portion wasn't really enough for us all. It came with two chutneys - one of which was quite spicy in the non-heat sense of the word, and which I really liked.

All of that with a bottle of wine between the four of us and some pints came to £28 each which isn't too bad for an evening meal. Would I go back again? Not for a sit-down dinner, no, but I'd happily go along and sit at the bar at the back and order that scallop dish again, or a plate of ham for something to nibble on. The foraging element felt like more of a gimmick than the main event, but to be honest I didn't expect otherwise. This place is also just around the corner from the Haggerston (where we went after) and Passing Clouds so a good place to drop in first as it wasn't that busy and a cocktail for £6.50 is bargain enough to draw me back.

Have also just heard that they've been given a late license so the nights might start getting a little livelier soon!