Ginstock 2013

Friday 14th June - I don't really know where to start with this one, it's all a bit hazy.  Ginstock is an annual event (fingers crossed) that started in 2012, run by the Tweat Up gang who organise fantastic one off foodie / drinkie days out including recently Taco Wars, Craft Beer Battle and Ribstock.  This "summer", Tweat Up  have been making use of Merchant Yard in Haggerston where the wonderful Street Feast is held every Friday.  If you haven't been to Street Feast (read more here) then you only have this Friday and a closing party on Saturday left to experience it (and the awesome Gin Store bar upstairs).  Street Feast is then effectively relocating to Wood Wharf under the name of Truck Stop which starts on the 4th July.

Anyway, I digress.  Ginstock.  I managed by some stroke of luck to win two free (usually £35) tickets through a competition that Barchick were running in association with Boodles Gin.  List Leader Natalie managed to get a few regular tickets before it sold out, but there were others who still needed tickets that I was delighted to be able to bring along.  I was informed that my prize also involved brunch for two with breakfast cocktails at 10.30 on the morning of Ginstock at Marcus Wareing's The Gilbert Scott, plus a taxi ride from there to Haggerston for kickoff at midday.  I sadly couldn't take them up on that as I was ambitiously packing in a concert in the morning before heading over to Kingsland Road, but they told me to chat to the folks from Boodles and Gilbert Scott in the hope of rearranging.  This was probably for the best anyway, as there was absolutely no need to have more cocktails than were already included with the Ginstock ticket!

Milk and Honey, Perkin Reveller and Dishoom have so far evaded The List , and Megaro has just opened

Team List (Natalie, Luke, Libby and Cassie) arrived first and had a good system going by the time I got there, saving seats and sending troops out in to the rain to battle through the crowds.  Everyone was given a voting card which also acted as the stamp card for 10 gin based cocktails from the competing bars. I love an imperfect stamp system as it always leads to a few extra free drinks (remember Malt Jockey?).  I was a couple of drinks behind schedule so had to really knuckle down.  Every bar was vying for our attention with freebies and witty banter.  Perkin Reveller gave out a tin containing all the ingredients of their cocktails so that it could be recreated at home.  Powder Keg gave out a bottled version of their cocktail - "stick your middle finger up at Boris and neck this on the Overground".  Free food and drink vouchers, badges, popcorn, sloe gin marshmallows, stickers, moustaches, bindis - you name it, we were bribed with it.  

My camera was having a temperamental day so most of these photos are from the Perkin Reveller website - see more here.

Teapots and jam from the Perkin Reveller team

The voting cards had plenty of room for leaving comments so that you could make an informed decision 10 (or 15) cocktails later.  The comments naturally became less pretentious and more honest / imcomprehensible as the afternoon wore on.

Midday: 

"Excellent presentation - fresh but a bit too floral"

5pm: 

"Red Bull / Worcestershire Sauce?" 

"Went down easy - that's what she said"

"Deliciousness personified" - what does that mean?

My favourite - "Oh, no :( "

Respect to latecomers Victoria, who arrived at around 3 and powered through them very quickly, and Arwa who finally escaped from work near the 5pm closing deadline which was luckily extended to 6pm.  The queues were a bit crazy towards the end but in general it was just the right amount of busy.  It was great to taste the new Boodles and Opihr gins, and to meet the people behind the new Megaro bar that is opening soon in King's Cross.  There was fantastic food on offer too.  I devoured a "fatty, greasy, piggy wrap" from the wonderful Stripped Back stall run by Ben Spalding, and also later on tucked into some delicious Yum Buns.  There were gin / botanical themed ice creams and lollies available from Sorbitium Ices and The Ice Kitchen but the weather didn't help them out too much.

No idea who this is.

Time to vote!

Eventually we got to the close of play and the votes were counted up.  Our favourites were The Gilbert Scott, Dishoom and Megaro.  The Gilbert Scott "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" was a delicious, drinkable CO2 charged concoction which we all finished in seconds.  Dishoom made a wonderful orangey cocktail named after Vasant Dhoble, an Indian police officer who goes around Mumbai hitting people with a hockey stick for breaking alcohol based laws - the idea behind their breakfast cocktail was that it could pass as orange juice, and Dhoble hopefully wouldn't notice.  Megaro were the last bar to be confirmed for Ginstock but did a fantastic job with their Sipsmith twist on a Tom Collins.  The winner of Ginstock 2013 was finally announced and the trophy went to the team of Boodles and The Gilbert Scott.  I managed to catch up briefly with Dav and the team earlier on in the day, and I'm delighted that they won.  I look forward to hearing more about their Ginstock adventure when I collect the second half of my Barchick prize at their establishment.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

Our party split in two at this point.  Some that were "ginned out" went to the excellent Fox pub and then on to Vietnamese food and The Book Club. I stayed put with Natalie and Arwa for the Gizzi Erskine after party lock in upstairs in the Gin Store.  It took a while for the bar to warm up but we saved our seats early before everyone else made it upstairs.  I spent the next hour playing poker and roulette in the casino earning tokens for more gin, with Arwa as a wing woman, whilst Natalie had a 7pm nap in the corner.  My secondary aim in the casino was to find a pretty lady called Flora who I had met in passing.  I wasn't very proactive sitting still at a poker table, but Arwa nearly had success by screaming "Does anyone know Flora?" in the queue for the women's toilets outside - there is no happy ending I'm afraid.  I also had a brief conversation with another female gin fan, but that ended when she said "Ergh, Battersea? Why would you live there?" - charming.  By 8pm we were totally shattered but we stuck it out for a couple more hours, surrounded by equally tired people and Gizzi Erskine's slightly terrifying Go Go Dancers who were being followed around by a cameraman.

View of Kingsland Road from the Gin Store

We eventually crawled on to an Overground train to that awful Battersea place, and had a quick spotify sing along before crashing out for most of the journey - the Powder Keg bottled cocktail was left for another day  if you are reading, Boris.  It was a hilarious, epic day filled with lovely people and awesome gin, and Ginstock 2014 has a lot of work to do to top this year.  Huge thanks to Barchick for giving me the tickets, and congratulations to Team List for making it through the day - only counts as 1 point though!  Don't forget to go to the last Street Feast this Friday or their closing party on Saturday,

Fox Craft Beer House - Street Feast London - Gin Store

Friday 26th April - I love the Overground line.  How else would I reach The Wapping Project, Midnight Apothecary in Rotherhithe, events at Tobacco Dock in Shadwell, Frank's Cafe in Peckham etc?  Last Friday, it took me all the way to Haggerston so that I could try out Street Feast London with some friends.  

We decided to gather in the Fox Craft Beer House first - an excellent pub for beer with a rooftop terrace.  Lauren and Natalie are both Overground line fans too, whereas Olly walked to the pub having moved in near Broadway Market recently.  I also work with two people who live on Kingsland Road who couldn't quite believe that I was trekking up to their neck of the woods to have a burger or two.  One of them even popped in to the pub to check that I was really there.  The staff were really friendly and we could happily have spent the whole evening chatting away here.  I must confess that I was so comfortable that I accidentally drank a beer on the bar that I thought was mine.  When it tasted different, I had the one next to it instead which seemed like the right one.  Unfortunately, neither drink was mine as it was still on the table when I returned from the bar.

After a couple of (our own) drinks we walked back down the road, past the long line of people at Tesco's waiting to use the only cashpoint in East London, and joined the fast moving Street Feast London queue.  It is free to get in, which explains why it was pretty overcrowded!  Unlike at Feast and Real Street Food festival, we couldn't speed our way around trying out different things as the queues for each stall were far too long.  After grabbing a drink from their bar (tasty bottled beers from BrewDog, Camden and Beavertown, plus giant cocktails from Rotary that I tried a few weeks ago with my sister), we decided to get stuck in to the queue for Yum Jungle.  It was incredibly slow moving (especially with some nasty queue jumper girls trying to get involved), but worth the wait.  I had a Thai-spiced chicken burger filled with crunchy Asian slaw, with delicious chips and some fancy mayo that I have forgotten the name of - it was all pretty special.

A special mention has to be given to the ridiculous men's open air urinals which are oddly placed next to where the women are queuing for their toilets.  They are also all facing one another so that you can either have an awkward time avoiding eye contact, or have a quick bit of pee banter.  After that interesting experience, Natalie and I had some enjoyable Sticky Toffee Pudding and Carrot Cake from Sweet Tooth Factory whilst everyone else was going for savoury food.  We were also joined by Haggerston local, James.  If you are thinking of going, I highly recommend getting there as close to 5pm as you can if you want to try several things, or hold off until a bit later.  There are so many great food traders to try that it's a shame to only fit in a couple!

After dessert, Natalie went home to sleep, which was a mistake because she missed out on The Gin Store!  In one corner of the market, there is a bouncer guarding a staircase which leads up to my new favourite bar.  It is one of the most beautiful spaces I have been to since starting The List.  It's like a cosy barn that has been filled with old furniture.  It has beams supporting a low sloping roof, and wonderful low ambient lighting.  I didn't manage to take any photos of the main room so you are just going to have to believe me.  It was buzzing inside and for some reason reminded me of those amazing bars that you stumble across in Budapest.  When James asked if there was a minimum spend on card, the barman replied 'Don't be a dick about it' - not quite sure what that meant, but it was delivered as a joke.  We managed to find some sofas and settled in for the rest of the evening.  There are the same beers from downstairs on offer, plus some special gin cocktails.  I haven't been back to that many places as I have so much left to try, but I might need to book out a whole Friday night to take some people here.  

Another string to Street Feast's bow is 'Ben Spalding Stripped Back' - a 50 minute high-quality, high-speed dining experience with drinks for £27.50 in a covered dining area.  In that time you get through four 'surprise' courses conceived by Ben Spalding that compliment the street food vibe going on downstairs.  Have a look at the website for more info and to book tickets.  

Street Feast is only open on Fridays, though this weekend they are holding special 1st birthday celebrations with extra stuff happening on Sunday and Monday too.  Get on that Overground line to Haggerston - you won't regret it!  For more food fun this weekend, head to Southbank for Real Food Festival and Streets of Spain all weekend.  I am also excited by the new events at Skyroom near London Bridge run by Platterform - especially The Good Egg Hangover Club, Cock'n'Doodle and The Gin Shed.  So much to do, so little money...  Thanks for reading!