Islington Brewhouse & Kitchen - Wild Game Co. - Talented Mr Fox - Experimental Cocktail Club

Tuesday 21st October - London may well have 70+ breweries operating at the moment, but there is only a handful of good brewpubs.  

To that short list, we can now add Brewhouse & Kitchen, who have just set up shop in Islington following success with their pubs in Portsmouth and Dorchester.  Another branch will also open soon a couple of miles away in Highbury.

My immediate impression was that it looked like a pretty standard pub, but there are some lovely design touches on closer inspection, including cheeky beer quotes, hidden hop drawers and arty beer bottles.  Then of course there's the fully operational brewing equipment rescued from the sadly extinct Lamb & Botanist brewpubs, not hidden behind glass but sitting proudly in the pub right next to the punters. Look out for friendly Head Brewer Pete Hughes patrolling the area.

I tasted 6 of Pete's launch beers on my visit, but here is the full list including some seasonal Autumn & Winter specials 

Arc Angel – ordinary bitter, 3.6% (traditional, caramel, bitter) 

Spandau B – session IPA, 4% (light, bitter, hoppy) 

Myddleton – blonde ale, 4.5% (simple, balanced, refreshing) 

Britton – American brown ale, 5% (dark, complex, hoppy) 

Watchmaker – strong bitter, 5.5% (traditional, balanced, bitter) 

Chaplin – IPA, 6% (intense, bitter, hoppy) 

Autumn & Winter specials: 

Suffragette Ninja – milk stout, 4% (rich, sweet, roast)

Triple A – rye ale, 5% (dry, spicy, floral) 

Vlad – winter warmer, 5.5% (fruity, spicy, malty) 

Raleigh – smoked porter, 5.5% (smoked, roast, chocolate)

The darker beers were particularly successful, and I also went back for a second go at the 6% Chaplin IPA.  There's plenty here to keep beer lovers happy, especially as there are many more draught and bottled options in reserve.  If you really fall for a particular beer, you can take home a 5 litre mini keg of the stuff too.

5 Litre Mini Kegs

I worked my way through some canapés (e.g. lamb koftas, pork belly in cider, mini fish & chips with mushy peas) but a return visit for the eye-catching beer-can chicken might be in order.  Food & beer pairing is strongly encouraged with third pint glasses available and a host of tempting mains from £10 on the menu.

Beer Can Chicken

If you really want to get your hands dirty, sign up for a £99 Brewing Experience Day which gets you 5 hours of learning, brewing, beer banter, a hearty lunch and 5 litre minikeg to take home.  

Also coming soon on Tuesday 25 November will be the first in a series of beer & food matching events at Brewhouse & Kitchen Islington.  This one will be with Don Parkin and Phil Harding who will bring their Honkytonk beer trolley for an expert fun guide through of seven courses of beer & food matches.  Tickets will cost just £25 - Book via phone 0207 837 9421 or email islington@brewhouseandkitchen.com

Islington Brewhouse & Kitchen is a welcome addition to an area that isn't short on top boozers.  Why not make a day of it with the likes of Three Johns, Craft Beer Co, Charles Lamb, Earl of Essex and North Pole round the corner.

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Wednesday 22nd October - Fitzrovia is about to be overrun by lobster restaurants, but street food veterans Wild Game Co. have arrived first on Charlotte Street to keep those crustaceans at bay. There's no need to look it up on Google Maps, just keep walking until you see a giant stag...

All the meat at Wild Game Co. comes from owner Andy Waugh's family business in the Highlands, Ardgay Game.  On the launch menu there are burgers (from £6), salads, bargain steak frites (only £12.50), and heart-warming stovies (£3.50).  Expect the likes of partridge, pigeon and rabbit to make an appearance on a specials board soon too.

We went straight for The Veni-moo (£8.50), a venison burger & a Highland beef burger, with double cheese and beef bacon, and home-made bearnaise sauce, with some beef dripping fries (£2.50) on the side.  It was a joy to eat, and a cut above anything I had at posh burger joint Bobo Social down the road.

"Steak & Chips!" from the new @WildGameCo 65 Charlotte St Fitzrovia (site formally Double J's) http://t.co/Vbs4gNEuZ5 pic.twitter.com/gil2jSXibA
— Wilkes McDermid (@wilkes888) October 21, 2014

The building sadly doesn't allow for an alcohol license, so there's more Irn Bru than Innis & Gunn, but home-made root beer and more will soon make an appearance.  

Wild Game Co. is bound to be very popular as there isn't too much else in this area like it. Pleasantly low prices and speedy service (not to mention delicious food) will appeal to students and the lunch crowd in particular.  Andy, still in street food mode, was chatting away to all the customers, and I can imagine you would feel like a regular here in no time.  A very promising start - I'll check back again soon. 

Keep an eye out for Wild Game Co.'s special events around town such as their 8-course game extravaganza, Struie Road, at Workshop Coffee.  

It's also worth perusing their excellent website - www.wildgameco.co.uk - which has all sorts of enticing recipes and more information on their meat.

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I'm delighted to announce that the Talented Mr Fox pop-up is back in residence at One Leicester Street.  The permanent Peg + Patriot in Bethnal Green helped to fill the temporary void, but it's great to have Matt Whiley, Ally Martin & co. back in business in Central London.

Natalie and I popped in after dinner at Wild Game Co.. I'll keep it brief as you can read my original write-up here.  Unsurprisingly there's a cracking new cocktail menu, plus a subtle TMF paintjob to boot.

Male & Female toilets or Mr.Fox?

Highlights include:

Princess Consuela (Banana, Cognac, Bitters, Absinthe Rinse) - £11

Green House (Chlorophyll Dogs Nose Gin, Kummel, Lemon, Tomato Vine) - £11

Young Cuban (Bacardi, Tio Pepe, Orgeat, Lemon, Dill) - £9

Kummel On My Face (Tequila, Apricot, Lime, Black Salt, Fig Leaf Soda) - £10

French Flip (Croissant Cognac, Egg Yolk, Port) - £10

We also had a sneak peek at an off menu Tunnocks Tea Cake Martini which could become a permanent fixture if it proves to be popular.

Princess Consuela

French Flip from above

French Flip and Tunnocks Tea Cake Martini

Kummel On My Face

Young Cuban

It's hard to order a bad drink at Talented Mr Fox, there is almost always space without reserving ahead, and you get a show when you sit at the bar.  For those reasons and more, TMF comfortably sits on my list of Best Cocktail Bars in London.  Get over there before it disappears again!

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Another contender for that list is Experimental Cocktail Club, just round the corner on Gerrard Street. I'm a huge fan of the original outpost in Paris, but talk of it being difficult to get in has led me to take my business elsewhere thus far.

But it was early-ish on a Wednesday evening, and Natalie was keen to get another point on the leaderboard, so we tidied up our hair, tucked in our shirts, and tied our shoelaces before greeting the bouncer outside ECC Chinatown.  

"How many?"

"Two."

"OK"

Well, that wasn't very hard.  Up the stairs we went...

I feel a fool for not dropping in before.  ECC Chinatown is a stunning candlelit cocktail bar spread over two floors, with a DJ spinning funky takes on 20s swing.  For a Wednesday night, the atmosphere was phenomenal - tables were packed and the bar was buzzing.  We loved the layout that allows you to peer down to tables below through the middle of the stairs, as well as the mirrors above the bar on the first floor.  

All of this fun comes at a cost of course, with drinks around the £12 mark.  There's also a cover charge of £5 after 11pm, but there won't be many better bars that stay open til 3am in London.  If you really want to splash the cash, order one of their Vintage Cocktails that start at £120.

Birds eye view from second floor

Bartenders were working double time trying to keep up with all the orders, and our drinks were worth the wait:

Popeye's Better Half - Plantation Original Dark Rum, spinach syrup, lemon juice, virgin olive oil, egg white and soda - £12.50

La Medicación - Ocho Blanco tequila, Ramazzotti, St Elizabeth Allspice Dram, agave nectar, ginger syrup, lime syrup & Del Maguey Vida Mezcal Mist - £12

And there's plenty more where that came from, if you can afford it.

We were really impressed with our first visit to ECC, and with Talented Mr Fox and Opium a stone's throw away, Chinatown is bizarrely a real destination for cocktail lovers.  It will take all of your willpower not to stop off somewhere for Chinese food afterwards...

Kench & Bibesy - Jim Beam Stillhouse - Williams Ale & Cider House

Wednesday 20th November - After a boozy Tuesday (see here), Wednesday was supposed to be my night off, but Louis (of Tuck and Vine) & Amy dragged me back out again.  If I'm honest, it only took one text before I was on a tube to Barbican, one of the least convenient stops to get to in all of Central London (I live in the incredibly well connected Battersea).  This is where the Evans & Peel Detective Agency boys have launched their new place, Kench & Bibesy.

Upstairs is a an attractive restaurant & bar serving small plates of British food.  Chef Michael Harrison has developed a quirky little menu with oddly named dishes like 'The Fall of Jerusalem' (Jerusalem artichoke, chestnut & black truffle paté, spelt crackers, pickled walnut) and 'Pigeon, Fancier' (pigeon breast, barley, chocolate, hazelnuts, rowan berry).

I greatly enjoyed my 'Return of the Tail' (pulled oxtail, roast potato, braised red cabbage & pickled grapes) as well as a portion of 'All Carrot No Shtick' (rare breed carrots, sorrel hollandaise, Buttermilk & black pepper), but Louis was less convinced by Amy's Belly Pops (confit pork belly lollipops, squash purée, Bramley apple).

The fun doesn't stop upstairs though, for tucked away below the restaurant is another low-lit speakeasy with a hidden entrance.  I'll leave it to you to pull and push on various panels and objects before finding the relatively obvious entrance to this underground watering hole.

Where's the door? No, not that one.

Someone obviously had a load of spare stuffed squirrels lying around, as they await you at every turn down here.  It is a pretty small space (no bookings are taken) which keeps the atmosphere lively. After Louis & Amy rushed off, I decided to prop up the bar to investigate the drinks list.

All of the beers (also available upstairs) are from Wild Beer Co (based in Somerset), including Fresh and Scarlet Fever on draught, both of which went down very easily.  In the fridge there are more adventurous bottles such as Ninkasi (9% - New Zealand hops, apple juice, wild yeasts and champagne fermentation) and Wildebeest (11% - Imperial espresso chocolate vanilla stout).

The cocktail list extends to several pages, which doesn't bother me as a lot of TLC has gone into this drinks menu.  The marmite drink on the list is Campari Eggnog (campari, egg, cream & sugar) which grew on me very quickly.  Experimental Campari dust was apparently sinking too readily, so cinnamon may be shaken on top instead.  The rival for most bizarre drink is the Marraine - Croissant infused Vodka (surprisingly well achieved) stirred with Almond Liqueur.  The friendly bartenders kindly gave me a taster of some Finnish Cloudberry liqueur which I hadn't come across before - order the Lapland Collins to see it in action.

A few of the cocktails are also available upstairs (such as the sweet Oenological Manhattan that turns dry in your mouth) along with the beers & amusingly-described wines ("dark fruits with mafia hit", "a plum in your mouth, sir" etc).  Both floors work nicely in their own way, and I'm sure this is going to be a big hit with the locals.  Can the next one be in Battersea, please?

Campari Eggnog

Friday 22nd November - I booked tickets to the Jim Beam American Stillhouse experience at the Old Truman Brewery a couple of months ago and promptly forgot about it, so it was a pleasant surprise to suddenly see it all booked in and paid for (a bargain £5) in my calendar.  I sped over to Shoreditch after work to meet 6th placed Lee for some early evening bourbon.

We collected our bourbon passports and made our way in to the first room where we were greeted by the Master Distiller himself, Fred Noe (Jim Beam's great-grandson).  Seven generations of Beams (or Boehms) have been producing Kentucky bourbon for over 200 years, surviving through the Great Depression, two wars and Prohibition.

Fred was a very engaging host, amusingly describing his inevitable rise to the role of Master distiller. He encouraged everyone to drink Jim Beam Original "however you damn well want" whether it be neat, watered down, or in a cocktail.  We held our glasses (bourbon was free flowing throughout) up to the light, and had a good sniff (mouths open) before "chewing" it in our mouths.  One clumsy/sozzled punter displayed how not to drink it by smashing his glass a few minutes in to the tour.

The second room showcased the special Devil's Cut bourbon.

"As bourbon ages, a portion of the liquid is lost from the barrel due to evaporation—that's the "Angel's Share." After aging, when the bourbon is dumped out of the barrel, a certain amount of whiskey is left trapped within the wood of every barrel. We call that the devil's cut." 

This is then blended with 6 year old bourbon and bottled at 45%.  Two comedians with dubious accents were running this room, and took us through the legal requirements that must be fulfilled for a product to be called Kentucky Bourbon.  Write down your answers and check here.  They also informed us that, during Prohibition, Jim Beam turned his hand to coal mining and citrus farming:

"Luckily for us, he was no good at either otherwise we would be holding lemony coal not bourbon."

The last room was a cocktail bar with four drinks to choose from making use of different Jim Beam products including Red Stag Black Cherry (also available in Spiced Cinnamon, Honey Tea & Hardcore Cider flavours) and Jim Beam Honey.  There are several other Jim Beam creations that weren't on show such as Maple, Black, Jacob's Ghost and Signature Craft which you can read more about on the website.

Before we left, we signed a barrel from which we will be sent a bottle of whiskey in 4 years time, assuming they can still contact us then.  I find it hard to believe it will actually happen, but it will be a very pleasant surprise if it does!  It was a superbly run event and ridiculously priced at £5 - make sure you don't miss it next time around.

We made one more stop that evening to break up the walk back to Liverpool Street. I spotted the recently refurbished Williams Ale & Cider House (keeping up with the beer revolution) down the road from The Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town on Artillery Lane, so we popped in with beer afficionado Sam to check out their 14 hand pulls and 7 taps.

Despite being so close to Liverpool Street, it wasn't busy for a Friday night and we managed to sit up at the bar.  It's a great looking pub, and it gets lots of extra points from me for having a free to play piano, and regular live jazz.

We started with the wonderful Five Points Pale before moving on to ales from ELB, London Fields, Camden Town and Portobello.  They have their very own "Spitalfields Brew" at 3.6% made for them as their house ale.

According to their website, they also have a quirky stew option on the food menu: 

"Our unique stew of the day will sit on the back bar and be served in mess tins, with a spoon and a wedge of bread. The stew will change daily and when it’s gone it’s GONE."

Williams Ale and Cider House is another top pub with great beer in London, and gives the excellent Water Poet some competition.  I do wonder what the Southampton Arms will think of the sign though...