London's Bottle Shop Bars

Another collaborative post with Jezza from www.beerguideldn.com (@BeerGuideLondon). He is one of a select group of London heroes that keep me in the know in their respective fields, and his guide to pubs and breweries in London is second-to-none. Most of the words are from Jezza and most of the photos are from me.

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Visiting New York a few years ago I - and other beer tourists - noticed a sudden proliferation of a new type of beer place. These are essentially beer shops which allow customers to choose any bottle from the shelves and drink it on site. Later versions often included a bespoke bar offering draft beers, which doubled up as a growler filling station for off sales. In short, they were a perfect illustration of what I will call - for the purposes of this article - 'bottle shop bars': a combination of a bottle shop and a bar.

Like most good American ideas it didn't take long for this concept to reach the UK, and in London we now have a number of rather excellent establishments offering variations on this basic concept. The most fully developed example is probably Mother Kelly's in Bethnal Green, but this is definitely more of a fully fledged bar with a bottle shop rather than bottle shop with a bar. Visit and you'll see what I mean.

At the other end of the scale - bottle shops with on site drinking possibilities - here are some of London's best:

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We Brought Beer - 28 Hildreth St, SW12 9RQ / 78 St John's Hill, SW11 1SF

Opened in Balham earlier in 2015, this smart and deceptively simple place has been such a stunning success that their second branch opened this week (Weds 28 October) offering around 450 beers in Clapham Junction (78 St John's Hill, SW11 1SF). The new site is bigger than the original, with a heated garden out back and a useful tasting room upstairs for 'meet the brewer' events and brewing workshops. Both outposts have 4 draft lines for growler fills and that all important on site drinking.

In Balham, on hip Hildreth Street, there's an immaculate range of 350 top quality bottles from around the world. Grab a beer and a stool, sit down and enjoy whilst perusing the fine range on the shelves. Rarities from Port Brewing, AleSmith and Hopping Frog are typical of the US selection, complemented by a great choice from the UK in the overall range.

Order beers online at Hubbub and enter WBB20 to get £20 off  your first order

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Hop Burns and Black - 38 East Dulwich Road, SE22 9AX - Closed Mondays

This smart but cosy and welcoming shop between East Dulwich and Peckham Rye opened at the tail end of 2014 but already feels like a well established part of the London beer scene. New Zealanders Jen and Glenn are incredibly friendly hosts, organising regular special events to go alongside their excellent range of high quality beers from around the world, hot sauces and vinyl (these three elements giving the shop its quirky but accurate name).

New outside seating - with heaters for the winter - provide additional space in which to enjoy a beer. And just check out that amazing flagon filling station - a state of the art beauty offering an eclectic and top quality range of fine draft beers to take away and enjoy at home.

Order beers online at Hubbub and enter HBURNS20 to get £20 off  your first order

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The Bottle Shop - 128 Druid Street, SE1 2HH - Saturdays only

Druid Street is perhaps the epicentre of the famous Bermondsey Beer Mile, being home to two breweries and the excellent Bottle Shop. This is a great example of a bottle shop bar. You can choose from any of the 200+ bottles and drink them here - or choose one of the ever changing drafts. Enjoy your beer in the seating area high up on the mezzanine level. With regular tap takeovers and 'meet the brewer' events with some of the country's best breweries, and an outstanding selection of bottles, you are sure to find something of interest here. Note the restricted opening hours, which are listed in our Guide entry here (currently open Saturday only).

Order beers online at www.bottle-shop.co.uk and get 15% off with a BottShop15 code

Photo taken by The Bottle Shop

Photo taken by The Bottle Shop

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The Hop Locker - Southbank Centre Market, Belvedere Rd, SE1 8XX - Friday-Sunday 

Being a market stall in the bustling Southbank Centre market, just behind the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank, The Hop Locker is a variation on the theme. However, as it offers drafts and bottles to drink at the market it still fits the bill of being a 'bottle shop bar' selling the best of UK beer to take away or drink on site. The range is expanding all the time and knowledgeable owner Joel now offers around 50 bottles and 8 constantly changing draft lines. While The Hop Locker only serves beer, there are plenty of food options from the other market stalls - many of them excellent. Wrap up warm over the next few months, however, as the drinking here is necessarily all outdoors. Open Friday, Saturday and Sunday only at the time of writing.

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The Wanstead Tap - 352 Winchelsea Road, E7 0AQ - Closed Mondays

Another variation on the theme, The Wanstead Tap is many things under one roof: bottle shop; bar; 

coffee shop; events space; cinema and general community space. While it may sound like it's trying to be all things to all people, they appear to do all these things well: the beer range is over 100 and very high quality, at excellent prices. So it's well worth the 10 minute walk from Forest Gate or Wanstead Park stations, but check the opening times carefully before you set off.

Photo provided by @BonsVoeux1

Photo provided by The Wanstead Tap

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The Beer Boutique - 134 Upper Richmond Rd, SW15 2SP

Belgian Marc opened The Beer Boutique in 2010 in between East Putney and Putney stations. It got off to a slow start, fighting over licence issues, but has grown into a fantastic bottle shop with 400+ beers and two (very affordable) draft lines. There's a reasonable 25p corkage charge to drink in, which won't bother you greatly if you are tucking in to sharing bottles from the likes of The Bruery and Rodenbach.

Much like Hop, Burns & Black, they have a fondness for vinyl, though it's not on sale here. It's one of the more homely bottle shops on the list - a place you'll want to spend all day in. Keep your eyes peeled for events and tastings on their website.

Opening times: Sun-Wed 12-8, Thu 12-9, Fri 12-9.30, Sat 11-9.30

Order beers online at www.thebeerboutique.co.uk

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Drink of Fulham - 349 Fulham Palace Rd, SW6 6TB - Closed Mondays

Technically called Dr.Ink of Fulham, this friendly bottle shop was ahead of its time when it opened in 2010, allowing customers to open bottles on-site to drink in the heated front garden, at no extra cost. On top of that, owner Shrila sells her own freshly made Gujurati curry pastes on a daily basis, and wonderful snacks on Saturdays (70p samosas!). To drink, you'll find world beers from the likes of Mikkeller, De Molen and Ballast Point alongside a wide range of British ales and craft beers. It's not the easiest place to get to, but it's worth the 10-15 minute walk from Putney Bridge and Parsons Green tube stations. The 220, 430 and 74 buses go very close too.

Opening times - Tue-Fri 2-8, Sat 11.30-8, Sun 12-4

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Thanks to Jezza for writing the majority of this post. His guide to pubs and breweries in London can be found online at: www.beerguideldn.com

The site contains full details of Mother Kelly's, We Brought Beer, Hop Burns and Black, The Hop Locker, The Bottle Shop and The Wanstead Tap – including opening times, which you should check carefully while planning any visits. You can also follow Jezza on Twitter @beerguidelondon or @bonsvoeux1 for frequent updates.

If you enjoyed this post, you may also like to read our recent post on Beer on the Southbank, and Jezza's up-to-date guide to the Bermondsey Beer Mile.

Paris

I know, I know - Paris isn't technically in London, but if you have a good night out in King's Cross and get on the wrong train home then you'll be there in no time. I headed straight from work and met my host for the weekend, Tim "I'm actuary an actuary!" Henshaw, at Gare du Nord on Friday evening at 21:47. Tim has been eager to get involved in The List and we had a few planning sessions on Facebook throughout the week. A lot of thanks also has to go to Bar Chick and Timeout for their interesting bar suggestions. Will anyone make it through to the end of this epic post? There'll be a quiz.

Day 1 - Friday 22nd March - I dropped my stuff off and headed straight out with Tim and Shannon (An American in Paris) to visit a couple of their favourite odd places. First up was The Frog and Rosbif - one of five English microbrewery pubs in Paris serving up a range of amusingly named beers plus some interesting beer cocktails. Then we headed over the river to pop in to a really silly bar called Le Carré in Saint-Michel which is vaguely Star Wars themed - by that I mean they have put up three Star Wars posters, and named 5 of their drinks after Star Wars characters. We went for 3 shots of Yoda Is My Master and then left as quickly as possible! They do run retro gaming evenings which could be fun.  Head down the road to find a Sushi restaurant with a door that only hobbits can fit through.  We finished off our evening at The Lizard Lounge (sans Shannah Montana) - head downstairs to the cave bar for some amateur DJ entertainment. Tim ended up running the music for 10 minutes while the DJ went outside for a cigarette! We called it a night and went home to plan for the big day.

Day 2 - Saturday 23rd March - After an enormous "Turbichoc" pastry from Atelier Hure next to Tim's flat, we headed to Cave à Bulles - a specialist beer shop down the road from Dans Le Noir (a pitch black dining experience that has restaurants around the world, including one in London) near Rambuteau Metro. Cave à Bulles stands out because they brew their own beer in front of you.  The owner is also extremely knowledgeable and entertaining - he recommended us a low percentage beer to drink over breakfast, prior to telling us to get control of our hop addiction before we ended up running a hop shop like he does to fund his hoppy lifestyle. We bought a few bottles, including a cheeky breakfast beer, and headed back to the flat to fine tune our  day plan with Shannel Islands, who had joined us there with more pastries. First up was a pizza place called Grazie that turns into a cocktail bar in the evening with an exciting drinks menu masterminded by the mysterious pair of Oscar Q and Franck C.

Cave a Bulles

Turbichoc Pastry and Grazie

It was already extremely busy by 12.30 but we managed to grab three seats at the bar, giving us full access to the informative and friendly bartender Cyril. The pizzas are ridiculous - I don't think I've ever had one this tall! Thankfully they tasted as good as they looked.  We washed them down with a very refreshing beer called Loirette Touraine. Sadly we never made it back for cocktails - I particularly want to try the one entitled "Speakeasy" for obvious reasons, along with the "Suffering Bastard". The "Infused Negroni" made with walnut-infused gin and artichoke-soaked Campari also sounds great. I would book a table next time to be sure of a seat.

 

Next on La Liste were two different beer places. First we went to Académie de la Bière (near Port Royal RER or Raspail Metro) - a Belgian bar and restaurant serving a wide range of deadly draught beers (and beer cocktails) with a generous happy hour from 15.30-19.30. Here we introduced Shango Unchained to our favourite card game Big 2 (otherwise known as Presidents) to pass the time. We like to keep track of who is winning and losing (President or Bum?) by wearing a particular hat which you will see in some photos later on.  We moved swiftly on to the fantastic beer bar, La Fine Mousse.

 

Here we added some more Americans (Rawn, Sarah and Cameron) to the Big 2 game. Rawn blew our  tiny little English minds by giving away the best card of the game to Shannibal on purpose - he was President one round later. Every beer was delicious and great value - the setup reminds me slightly of the wonderful Euston Tap although it is nowhere near as cramped! It was very tempting to stay til closing (they serve from 17.00-02.00 every day) but we decided to press on to a few more standard List-style hidden bars in the Oberkampf/Republique area. We gained British Bill and Aussie Mike at this stage. Candelaria was our next stop - walk through a very ordinary looking taco bar and push on the unmarked door at the back and you are rewarded with a brilliant, atmospheric cocktail bar.  Tim and I went for their two special cocktails - one spicy, one smokey, both exceptional.  Bill and Mike stayed manly and had a bottle of Sol. It is also worth having a plate of their guacamole and tortilla chips. It looks like you can book on their website which is necessary if you want a table.

Can you spot the door?

 

We lost all of our Americans except for Shanna Karenina but kept Bill and Mike for two more bars. Next up was Little Red Door - Mike warned us that it could be hard to get in, so we called ahead to give ourselves more of a chance.  It is again unmarked so look out for the little red door set back from the street guarded by a giant bouncer (this slightly ruins the look of the entrance sadly!) - warning: the red door is not a door, the wall is the door, obviously. Mike talked the bouncer into letting us in and we packed inside for a quick drink. The atmosphere isn't as relaxed as Candelaria but if you book ahead then I'm sure you'll have a great evening. Their signature cocktails are €13-14 - pretty standard in Paris for the good stuff. Bill and Mike scrapped their manly image by ordering champagne cocktails.  

Don't mess with Tim

 
At this point we were joined by two Frenchies - Vahé and Simon. We tried and failed to get in to Andy Wahloo (run by the people behind Momo and Sketch in London) so we had to skip straight on to Experimental Cocktail Club - these guys have a place in London but also own Curio Parlour and Prescription Cocktail Club in Paris.  Tim made the basic error of not saying "Bonsoir" to the bouncer who then blanked him and talked to someone else - not quite as funny as the reverse situation I had the week before when Sam managed to get a bouncer at Kokos to say please to him.  Inside we met our favourite bartender of the weekend, Pierre - "I am French, I am a barman - I must be called Pierre!". We instructed him to make us whatever he wanted (except for Bill who, having completely given up on pretending to like beer, ordered a glass of champagne - to his credit, he did refuse a strawberry garnish).

 

Pierre whipped up lots of inventive cocktails for us, tempting us in to a second round (when we were joined by another Brit abroad, Polly). He was also very generous, giving me a free taster of some Velvet Falernum and Fernet Branca, and making Polly a new drink when she wasn't convinced by one of his creations. If you told him to make you a drink with anything except gin, then he would make you one with gin on purpose to change your mind. We also had the first of several flaming cocktails that evening - it never gets old! We eventually dragged ourselves away, losing Bill and Mike in the process, and we headed over to Le Ballroom Du Beef - a secret, underground bar beneath The Beef Club restaurant near Les Halles, again run by ECC. The entrance is outside the restaurant - look for an unmarked black door, probably being patrolled by a doorman (these guys really ruin the excitement of finding somewhere hidden!). Tim talked his way in by claiming that we had been here a few times before, and that we didn't need to sit down.

I joined Tim at the bar to find the bartender jumping up and down like a madman. "Did you do that, Tim?", I asked. "I think so - I just asked him to make 6 cocktails of whatever he wanted and he started jumping around with joy!". More flames and an absinthe mojito came our away amongst other drinks.  The atmosphere was fantastic - it's a fairly big venue for an underground bar and it was still completely packed so turn up early or be prepared to be turned away.

To complete our night we headed over to Le Fumoir - a relaxed restaurant bar where Shandbags knew the barman and a secret cocktail code! Ask for Le Dernier Métro (a Truffaut film title) and you are rewarded with a special drink.  He even gave us a few of them on the house which my wallet was very relieved about. They have happy hours from 18.00-20.00 and seem to take their Martinis very seriously. We said goodbye to Vahé, Simon and Polly and headed off in search of some crepes. For some reason, we found ourselves back at ECC where Tim's favourite bouncer greeted us with "Re-bonsoir!".

Stay!

Don't Go!

So wonewy

Pierre made us three final drinks which he described as a "descent into hell" ending with a potent Mezcal-based cocktail.  After a bizarre accidental camera-flash battle with a couple across the room, we headed off for a second crepe and some sleep. Douze points to Tim and Shanana for a top effort all day.

Day 3 - Sunday 24th March - We obviously didn't wake up too early but luckily it was still brunch o'clock so we headed straight for Breakfast in America - an American Diner in Paris serving up massive portions of bacon, eggs, pancakes etc with bottomless coffee and tasty milkshakes (go for the Oreo or Obama variations). We entertained ourselves with some more Big 2 in the queue - get there as early as you can to avoid a big wait.  The food was exactly what we needed and we particularly liked the fact that every table gets its own personal toaster! For a hearty meal, order CC's Big Mess and bring your expandable trousers.

Shansel (not Gretel) finally headed home to do some work (there were tears) after brunch so Tim and I made some more plans to visit some bars around Rambuteau and Bastille without her. First up was Mary Celeste (run by the Candelaria team) - an oyster/cocktail bar with Brooklyn beer on tap.  Head here for €1 oysters during their happy hour from 17.00-19.00.  We went for the tasty Brooklyn EIPA after too many cocktails the day before, but I'm sure they are excellent based on the Candelaria creations.  The free Mary Celeste postcard that comes with your bill is a nice touch.

We headed over Bastille way to try out Tape (a graffiti bar) and L'Entre Potes (a basement bar with quirky décor) but both were shut - it was a Sunday but Timeout did lead us to believe they would both be open. Shan Solo rejoined us sooner than we expected for a couple more drinks after giving up on her work due to a faulty computer and an unhealthy addiction to Big 2. Next we had some very ordinary beer in Bottle Shop - head there in happy hour for extremely cheap drinks.

Bum Wig - Trainers in Washing Machines - President Hat

Then we came to Bar 138 - a relaxed place with shabby chic décor and cheerful staff.  This is the kind of place you could spend the whole day in, especially with happy hour til 9 and food served til late as well. Shananarama abandoned us again at this point leaving us playing cards on our own.

Buddha the Bum

We headed over to Red House, another unmarked cocktail bar.  The drinks here are superb and we were very sad to have just missed happy hour. Thanks to the barman for getting us the last plate of nachos and giving me a taster of their Earl Grey syrup.

Finally, we went to try out Sherry Butt (guess what - unmarked door) after a strong recommendation from Pierre - he is definitely a big fan as we found him drinking at the end of the bar.  It was very empty as it was nearing the end of a Sunday night but the quality of the drinks was still there.  They offer Whiskey flights (try a few whiskeys from different countries) alongside an exciting cocktail list.  The barman was very engaging and gave us some tasters of pine nut syrup, byrrh and chicha morada after we asked about them. They are clearly very serious about their cocktails, keeping all of their glasses refrigerated between 3 and 4 degrees.

I think either everything was shutting or we ran out of money but we decided to stop there, go home to eat pasta and pesto, and watch some Green Wing.  As an added bonus, Shannover turned up for a final game of Big 2 to end the weekend perfectly.  An enormous performance from Tim and (George Frideric) Shandel has seen them rocket towards to the top of Team List with 17 and 15 visits respectively - Natalie is now floundering on 9 (Feast only counts as one!). Thanks also to Vahé and Simon (quatre points), Bill, Mike and Polly (trois points), and Rawn, Cameron and Sarah (deux points) for keeping us going on Day 2.

Quiz Time - can you name every variation on Shannon's name that is used throughout the blog? 

The winner gets mentioned on the next post and on twitter, and (if we ever meet) can have a sticker. Post your answer as a comment, tweet, facebook message, text etc.  Runners up might get stickers too. I have so many stickers. Bonus extra special sticker goes to anyone that comes up with a funnier one!

Please also leave comments if you have been to some other great places in Paris - Tim and Shannon would love to know about them!