Casita - Cotton's Rhum Shack - Beagle - Red Dog Saloon - The Macbeth

First of a few very brief round ups of all sorts from July:

Casita, Shoreditch - Casita is a teeny tiny Mexican bar, tucked away in the back streets of Shoreditch on Ravey Street near the Book Club.  It's just one room (a fair amount of which is taken up by the bar) so most people spill out onto the street.  They have a cocktail menu including the Casita G&T which contains neither gin nor tonic - instead it has ginseng and tequila!  There is a  fun and friendly atmosphere, with customers suddenly becoming bartenders and everyone being treated like a regular - Liverpool Street seemed a million miles away.  I rushed off to something else, but I have no doubt that Casita is an awesome place to spend an evening.  The Team List point goes to flatmate Maggie this time around.

Cotton's Rhum Shack, Box Park Shoreditch - Cotton's is a very lively Carribean bar and kitchen, hidden on top of Box Park near Shoreditch High Street Overground.  Walk past the more standard looking bar, down a corridor and you reach the covered but open air rum haven, overlooking Bethnal Green Road.  My visit was again brief, popping in for a quick drink to say farewell to Team List regular Harriet who is moving to Vienna, but it was very lively whilst I was there.  The food menu is enticing, and with 250 rums behind the bar, you can't really go wrong.  Head there for happy hour which, I believe, runs from 5-8 every day.

Wednesday 24th July - The end of the evening was already planned with an intimate (squashed) Snarky Puppy gig at the Macbeth in Hoxton, so I met Cassie early for some drinks and food.  We started at Beagle which is right next to Hoxton station, underneath the railway arches.  I first came across Beagle with List Leader Natalie at Feast all the way back in March before they had opened, where we tasted some delicious buttermilk fried rabbit.  It is still on my list to visit for food, but this time around we just had a drink. Beagle has separate archways for the restaurant and the bar, similar to Ev near Waterloo which is one of my favourite spots in London.  I grabbed a pint of Pale Ale from the new Redwell brewery, and headed back out to the pleasant front garden.  The local draught beer selection is excellent, and the cocktail list is refreshingly original.  They also open bright and early with a tiny coffee shop at 7am, making use of beans from Hackney locals, Climpsons and Sons.

We moved on, and popped our heads in to the Red Lion pub to check out their roof terrace.  It's a lovely little spot, just far enough away from the Hoxton Square crowd.  Well worth a look, especially for £2.90 pints on Mondays!

We were in need of some speedy grub before Snarky Puppy, so we wandered over to Hoxton Square to survey the options.  I was tempted by another trip to the wonderful Meat Mission (read more here), we decided to try out Red Dog Saloon since it was on The List.  Red Dog Saloon is an "Authentic American BBQ", housed in an attractive and well placed space on the corner Hoxton Square.  We sat at the bar as there weren't any tables free, but it's arguably the best place to sit anyway as you always get great service from barstaff.  We quickly munched our way through some tasty pulled pork buns with Magaritas and Schooners of Samuel Adams on the side.  The award winning hickory smoked ribs also looked wonderful as they went past.  For the brave and hungry, there is The Devastator Challenge - three 6oz patties, 200g pulled pork, 6 rashers of Applewood Smoked bacon, and 6 slices of American cheese in a bun with all the trimmings, plus coleslaw, chips and a milkshake on the side, all of which needs to be devoured in 10 minutes. Anyone managed that yet?

The Devastator Burger

The service was noticeably better than most other places I have been, which is impressive as it is always busy there.  Full up, we moved on to our last stop - the quirky pub / gig venue The Macbeth on Hoxton Street to see Snarky Puppy, who I mentioned in my previous Notting Hill post.  It was absolutely rammed so we settled in for a sweaty evening - I recommend grabbing a place at the back end of the bar where you can see everything, and get served quickly, though be prepared to take some drinks orders for people you don't know!  The drinks are fairly standard, though there are frozen magaritas on offer.  The decor and layout are pretty nutty - halfway up the stairs is another good vantage point!  Most importantly, the sound quality and atmosphere are top notch, and as a result The Macbeth constantly attracts popular bands across all genres who want to give their fans a close-up, authentic live music experience.  Keep an eye on what's on and try it out!

Cassie gets 3 more List points for our Hoxton jaunt, whilst Maggie and Harriet pick up the other points mentioned above.  I'll leave you once again in the capable hands of Snarky Puppy - enjoy!

Feast

Only once place to mention I hear you cry? Not quite... On Friday night (the 8th), Natalie (our current List leader) and I made our way to Shadwell near Wapping to attend Feast food festival in the Tobacco Dock building - an amazing 19th century warehouse complete with two pirate ships docked nearby!

We arrived almost as soon as it opened at 18.00 to get a few tasters in before the crowds arrived.  We had a quick scout around before starting with some freebies from Roti Chai - a delicious chicken chilli bun, dhokla (Gujurati steamed chickpea cake) and various chutneys. Their full street kitchen/restaurant menu looks very interesting - go and find them near Edgware Road.  We moved straight on to a Hix Fishdog - a posh fish finger sandwich with minted mushy peas and yummy tartare sauce for £3.50 (possibly my favourite item of the night) - my second Hix experience of the week after going to Mark's Bar on Wednesday (read about it here).

Next up we went to chat to the boys at The Bowler who serve Great British Balls out of their van, The Lawn Ranger. We went for spicy tomato meatballs with rice and coleslaw (£5 for 2 big meatballs, £3.50 for one - generous portions). Check their site to see where they are parking up next. We moved swiftly on to Forza Win who were serving up Fonduta Fingerz - Slow roasted smoked loin of Ginger Pig ham with oozey fontalle cheese cooked with oregano, and a touch of mustard in a toasted ciabatta. They were deliciously cheesy and therefore pretty filling - perhaps not our best move strategy wise for eating as much as possible! Forza Win normally run seasonal supper clubs that look fun, and they are returning in June later this year.

The Lawn Ranger

Natalie then spotted the word rabbit and went all northern on the folks at the Beagle.  They were serving up buttermilk fried rabbit (her favourite game apparently) with black bean and tomato salsa which we munched our way through pretty quickly.  Natalie went back and discussed rabbit cooking until they gave her some free lamb and homemade pesto as well, showing all the experience that has seen her take the top spot on Team List from Maggie.  The Beagle is opening a cafe/bar/restaurant at the end of March in the arches near Hoxton station with the restaurant focusing on seasonal British food.  Check the website for updates on the upcoming launch.  We obviously forgot about our cheesy strategy mistake from earlier as we moved on to Anna Mae's Mac'n'Cheese next.  They make it up in giant pans in front of you and offer some interesting variations on the original but we had to go for the classic this time around.  The portions are extremely generous at £5 and very moreish.

Despite being now entirely full of cheese we soldiered on and headed for Spit and Roast to try their Buttermilk Chicken Slider with Korean Hot Sauce (£3.50).  Many of the other vendors recommended these guys and they weren't wrong.  The are holding their own Spit & Roast Jamboree on Friday 15th March which promises to be a great night.  They are also appearing at the Brooklyn Feast on Tuesday 12th March (tomorrow!) - 8 of London's top street food vans are parking up next to each other and being paired up with a different Brooklyn beer by Brooklyn Brewery brewmaster Garret Oliver. A £6 ticket even includes a beer AND a signature dish from one of the trucks.

We were really starting to feel fat by this point so we decided it was time for some pudding. Luckily we discovered a stall from Le Petit Paris in the bar where we had some delicious ice cream - we tried rhubarb (winner), salted caramel and hazelnut praline.  They also do macaroons and milkshakes. It's not entirely clear what they are up to after Feast but they did present a pop-up last September called Sunday Service on a rooftop in Dalston that looked amazing. We washed that down with a bourbon cocktail and had a wander in the hope that our stomachs would create some new space for more food.  It was during this wander that we followed a few subtle arrows on the floor and suddenly found ourselves on our own in a blacked out room under UV lights playing table tennis or "Ping Tron".  We felt very smug for having found this secret room on our own but we didn't stick around for long because Natalie is pretty rubbish at table tennis even when the room is fully lit.

Ping Tron

We still weren't feeling ready for more food so we ventured in to another secretive little area where Rita's Supper Club was quietly putting on a 4 course candlelit meal with rum cocktails on the side.  We couldn't face that much food but we did talk them in to giving us a Kraken of Youth cocktail made with Kraken rum and Michelberger's Fountain of Youth (otherwise known as Coconut Water - follow that link to an amusing website). Rita's Supper Club is run by Rita's Bar & Dining who are currently based in Dalston - check it out!

We finally decided to get back on the food and headed over to Dishoom who were serving up a Lamb Raan bun with some tasty sides and, best of all, a free cup of authentic, warming Chai tea. Dishoom's London Bombay Café can be found in Shoreditch and Covent Garden. We couldn't eat any more after that so we settled in to watch some of the great folk music on offer and even tried to aid the digestion process by joining in with some organised dancing. There were still so many places that I wanted to try out but we left some on purpose that will hopefully be getting a visit soon - Mishkins, Patty and Bun, Elliot's Cafe, The Good Egg, The Last Days of Pisco, Big Apple Hot Dogs, Meringue Girls, Beard to Tail , and Pizza Pilgrims to name a few!

Big thanks to Team List front-runner Natalie for keeping me company throughout all the eating. Coming up this week: MY BIRTHDAY, Rebel Bingo and Pop up Ping Pong! Please leave comments especially if you have any exciting List ideas or you have been to one of those places after reading the blog. Thanks for reading!