Upstairs at Nancy's - Sager + Wilde - Hawker House - Night Tales

Saturday 9th November - 2013 may well be remembered as the year that Street Food really started to take over the London food scene.  Billed by some as "The Summer of Grub", we were spoiled with markets, popups and events all over the city.  But what happens when it gets cold outside? Surely the restaurants, bars and pubs will come into their own again? Not if Street Feast, Night Tales and Kerb have got anything to do with it.  Both Street Feast and Night Tales launched their Winter popups two weeks ago, so I got on the trusty Orange Line to the far East.  To break up the journey to Broadway Market, I made a couple of stops along the way, starting with a new bar on Shoreditch High Street.

Upstairs at Nancy's is a cosy little bar, tucked away above the excellent Crown & Shuttle pub near Shoreditch High Street. There are only a few tables so don't leave it too late.  It has been smartly done up with fake shop fronts to give the impression of sitting outside on a Victorian street.  I met List Leader Natalie and Team List debutant for a quick drink after their disappointing trip to the overhyped Experimental Food Society Spectacular at The Old Truman Brewery.

The drinks menu is short but interesting.  There are bottled beers from London breweries such as Five Points, Partizan, Redchurch and Weird Beard.  Red and white wine are both served directly from barrels.  For £8.00 you can have one of their two barrel aged cocktails, The London Negroni (Kamm & Sons Ginseng Spirit, Vermouth and Gin) or Nancy (Kamm & Sons, Vermouth and Mezcal).  Food comes from the Crown & Shuttle downstairs.

They are now taking bookings for Christmas at Nancy's, a festive banquet for £40 which includes a great deal of food, and spiced mulled wine or mead on arrival.  It would be a unique place to have a Christmas dinner - book now!

Our next stop was Sager + Wilde on Hackney Road, halfway to Broadway Market from Hoxton Overground.  I tried to pop in to this lovely wine bar on my last crawl around the area, but they shut rather early at 11pm to appease their new neighbours.  Hopefully they will be able to extend this in the New Year once they have settled in.

Sager + Wilde are Michael and Charlotte Sager-Wilde who ran a very popular wine bar popup at the end of 2012.  They have now found a permanent home, and they haven't skimped on the design. We were very taken with the pavement light bar top.  There is a Daily Menu with affordable wines and fizz, available by the glass and bottle, and a slightly more pricey Market List with the likes of Clos de Vougeot Grand Cru Domaine Henri Boillot 2005 Burgundy at £148. Takeaway is £10 off the list price. There are some interesting bottled beers, as well as a few cognac, sherry and vermouth options.  To eat, there are grilled cheese sandwiches, tartines, charcuterie, cheese, snacks and even ice cream.

We were well looked after at the bar by Michael on our brief visit, who started by pouring us some free sparkling water which he struggles to give away as most people think they have to pay for it.  Cassie went for a glass of the Prosecco Di Valdobbiadene 'Bottle Fermented' Zuchetto 2012 Veneto and I greatly enjoyed my white Macon Uchizy Talmard 2011 Burgundy. I highly recommend paying these guys a visit, and staying longer than we did! I will be back.

Our 3rd stop of the evening was Street Feast's latest popup, Hawker House - an indoor night market with street food, hot cocktails, a whisky bar, beer, wine, DJs and, as they would say, good vibes. It is open every weekend until the 14th of December (when they will hopefully have a Christmas party of some kind).  It is open from 5pm-2am (hooray for the late license!) every Friday & Saturday - £3 entry between 7pm and midnight and free otherwise.  We were joined by Team List regular Lauren and Broadway Market locals Olly & James who bizarrely decided to cycle 30 seconds down the road from their flat.

After a short queue in the cold, we made our way indoors to the toasty Hawker House, inspired by the hawker centres of Singapore and decorated in the familiar Street Feast style with attractive multi-coloured bulbs strung up all over the place.  The traders are mostly familiar faces (Spit & Roast, Smokestak, Breddos Tacos, Yum Bun, Rola Wala, B.O.B's Lobster, Sorbitium and more), and it is good to see Morito tapas & mezze bar from Exmouth Market getting involved.  I won't go into all the details about everything that we ate, though I greatly enjoyed by Baba G's Biryani Burrito from the Bhangra Burger team. Here are some photos to whet your appetite: 

On the bar front, they have the reliable Rotary Bar for giant cocktails, craft beers and wine, but the Summer Gin Store has been replaced by the Winter Whisky Bar complete with over 50 bottles to choose from and a random whisky generator for the indecisive.  For more exciting wine, there is the excellent Street Vin stall with a restaurant quality list including a Magnum of the week.  Finally, there is the Hot Bar which offers several warming drinks such as Hot Buttered Rum, Hawker Hot Chocolate (laced with Cognac and green Chartreuse) and Hot Applegrass (with Zubrowka, lemon, ginger and apple juice).  This seems like a great idea as soon as you walk in, but not so clever 15 minutes later when you are down to your t-shirt and after a cold beer as it is pretty hot inside! I do feel that they possibly haven't made the right call making it indoors.  Whilst they have done wonders with the site, it isn't quite as magical as their Dalston Yard effort, and I personally am a big fan of layering up and braving the winter winds with a mulled wine in one hand and an oversized German sausage in the other. However, the 2am late license is a huge improvement from previous installments and something that most outdoor Christmas markets can only dream of.

Our locals disappeared to some terrifying sounding club night, leaving Lauren and I far from home, so we decided to get the bus over to the new players on the night market scene, Night Tales, before hopping back on the Overground.  They have set themselves up in a car park in Dalston Junction, a stone's throw away from the last Street Feast site (whose signs are still up), and are open every Thursday-Saturday in the run up to Christmas. Opening times are Thursday 6pm-11pm, Friday 6pm-midnight are Saturday 4pm-midnight, and there is again £3 entry though I'm not sure when it applies. Up to date information is available on their Facebook page - click here.

Unlike Street Feast, they have decided to stay outdoors, and the atmosphere is all the better for it. Crammed under a large canopy are several bars, including a Negroni station and a raised Mezcal mezzanine (changing to a Shake, Rattle & Stir Gin Bar next week), and some fantastic street food traders.  They have done well to secure the services of BAO, Rainbo, Le Petit Paris, Patty & Bun and Pizza Pilgrims.  They also have the Smokey Tails boys fresh from their summer popup in Hackney Wick, who come with the added bonus of DJ Seth Troxler.  As well as top DJs, they will also have live music including an African funk band tomorrow (Saturday 23rd November) which sounds right up my street.  We grabbed some BAO, a couple of deadly Mezcal concoctions and some hot cider and soaked up the buzzing atmosphere.

Which one you prefer out of Hawker House and Night Tales will be down to personal taste.  They are both wonderful places to spend an evening, though Night Tales just edges it for me by staying outdoors. There is plenty of room for both of them in London - who knows how many there will be this time next year. Let me know what you think!

Nightjar - White Lyan - Liquor Cabinet - Mr.Buckley's

Friday 28th September - After seeing the state of the Team List Leaderboard, my siblings (and significant plus ones) decided it was time to get some more points.  Nightjar has been on The List for a long time, and Em has just moved up to Hoxton so I booked us in for some pre-dinner drinks at 18.30.  Early evening slots are quite easy to come by, but if you want to have a table later on (when the live jazz gets going) you need to book way in advance - I'm talking a month or two here.

Nightjar is tucked away inbetween various unsavoury looking kebab shops and cafés just off the Old Street roundabout.  You may have unknowingly walked past it during the day, but it is pretty obvious at night due to the queue and sore thumb doorman (Opium and Ballroom du Beef are also guilty of this hidden bar crime).  You instantly forget what neighbourhood you are in once you make it downstairs.  We were shown to a cosy table opposite the piano, which would have been ideal if it had been a little later on.  The background jazz was already much better than most bars manage.  We were brought the now customary jug of bizarre flavoured water (cucumber, apple, Miles Davis' sweat etc etc) with some free popcorn to keep us happy whilst we tried to make the tough first cocktail decision.

Waldorf Gloom Lifters and Cold Buttered Rum

The menu is split into Pre-Prohibition (1600-1918 - what happened in 1600?), Prohibition (1918-1932), Post War (1940-2000) and Nightjar Signatures.  There is also a Unique to Nightjar section which includes vintage liqueurs and spirits, an absinthe collection and all sorts of special gifts including the superb Nightjar pack of cards (see below) which I caved and bought.  Head bartender Marian Beke has travelled all over the world to source unheard of ingredients and garnishes, hence the need for a glossary at the back.  You can read an interesting interview with him here.

We were strongly advised to go for a crazy sharing cocktail with dry ice, but we steered clear since all the drinks are beautifully presented anyway.  We started with two Waldorf Gloom Lifters (served in Hip Flasks on ice), a Cold Buttered Rum (with a hot coconut butter float slowly infusing into the drink, and a dehydrated lime) and a Coffee & Cacao Soda (for a drugged up member of our party).  Al and I struggled to balance our hip flasks, which did actually fall and spill a couple of times before we just put them on the table.  It was a very boozy drink, which never seemed to run out.

Shrubbler, Nougat Cocktail and Rodriguez Sour

Our next round (pictured above) included a Shrubbler, a Nougat Cocktail and a Rodrgiuez Sour.  Al's Shrubbler came with an edible fruit basket (think creme brulee topping) containing his five a day.  Jo's Nougat Cocktail came with lightly singed white chocolate, and a liquid chocolate pot on top.  We had a taster of the very drinkable Ysabel Regina brandy that was used to make it.  My Rodriguez Sour had a paprika coated rim and a mysterious chocolate coated fruit dangling over the top of it.  As you can see from some of the cards below (which are slightly out of date), they really don't hold back on the presentation.  The drinks aren't just for show though, and they tasted as good as they looked.  Nightjar is quite comfortable one of London's best cocktail bars, and I think I would have to dedicate a whole evening (and a fair amount of cash) to it next time.  Book now!

Em only arrived as we were finishing our last drink, allowing Jo to gain a point on her in the sibling rivalry race.  We decided to pop in to the always wonderful Yum Bun (read more here) for some much needed sustenance before moving on to our second cocktail bar of the evening.  

It was the public opening night of White Lyan, a quirky new cocktail bar from master mixologist, Ryan Chetiyawardana, who has been involved with the much loved Whistling Shop in Shoreditch and Bramble in Edinburgh amongst other places.  The plan here is to speed up drinks preparation by pre-bottling many cocktails, giving the bartenders more free time to chat to customers.  No perishable ingredients are used behind the bar.  The most notable absence is fresh citrus - other souring agents are used instead.  There is also no ice involved to avoid unwanted dilution, with spirits and drinks instead being chilled to exact temperatures.  The bar therefore looks very different, with hardly anything on show except for a big fridge. Drinks are made with Mr.Lyan (Ryan's brand) spirits, and only house drinks are available.

They were lacking some electricity when we arrived, but candles were out on tables and the fridges seemed to still be working so we sat down in a quiet corner.  The menu is full of weird libations including Bone Dry Martini (flavoured with chicken bone tincture), Lyan Club Cocktail (gin, turmeric and red apple shrub, soda), and Lada Lada (tequila, smoke, elderflower and lager syrup).  Sadly though, the flavours didn't match the ideas at all.  We were really disappointed with 4 out of 5 of our drinks.  I don't think it helped that we had just been to Nightjar. The Beeswax Old Fashioned was the only cocktail that got the thumbs up.  Lada Lada and Yiddish Bubbles were far too sweet (bring a lemon) whilst the Lyan Club Cocktail tasted mostly of vinegar, with no obvious signs of turmeric and red apple shrub.  Al was unimpressed by his red wine, and it did not improve when they added a spice distillate the second time around to give it extra depth.  The only beer option is the canned (and highly overrated) Hobo Craft Lager, which you can alter with hop atomisation to turn it into a pale ale.  I know they are going for simplicity, but would it hurt to have a local beer or two in the fridge?

There is a club downstairs which wasn't up and running when we went.  The décor is minimal - I would imagine that the idea is to let the drinks do the talking, which worries me.  I find it hard to believe that they have tasted our drinks and feel that they are worth up to £9.  With any luck, all of the other drinks are great, and the others will be improved.  At any rate, I'm not rushing to go back to find out.

We lost Jo and Ant (still feeling under the weather, despite sensibly moving on to whisky drinks) allowing Em and Al to extend their Team List lead.  We crossed over to Hackney Road, aiming to go to Sager & Wilde to get Al a nice glass of wine after the last two.  Before we made it there, I diverted them in to The Liquor Cabinet, a tiny bar underneath the Golden Grill kebab shop run by the experienced duo of Mikey Seddon and Thom Docker, both formerly of The Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town.

Before The Liquor Cabinet turned up, the space was used by Quiquiriqui Mezcaleria, which I annoyingly didn't make it to.  List regular Sam reported back that it was a lot of fun, and that it stayed open so late that they had to be let out through the kebab shop.  Quiquiriqui have now moved in to Catrina the Cocktail Ambulance, which also sounds pretty wonderful - read more here.

The Liquor Cabinet has only recently managed to sort out a license issue, so it had only been open for a couple of days when we went in.  The idea here is to have one excellent variety of their favourite spirits and a few mixers alongside a couple of solid wines and beers, whilst keeping prices low.  The atmosphere was buzzing, and the simplicity really works here (unlike in White Lyan!).  Al and Em were very happy with their red wine, and I had a very nice £4.50 G&T made with Three Corners Gin (which uses only two botanicals - Juniper and Lemon).  If I was a local, I think I would be here all the time.  It is open Tue-Sat and the bar is cash only.

As it was approaching 11pm, we decided to hop on over to Sager & Wilde for a final drink, only to find that they had just called last orders.  Sager & Wilde is an attractive new wine bar on Hackney Road, set up by Michael and Charlotte Sager-Wilde, following on from their successful pop-up in Shoreditch last year.  They are however on their best behaviour with their new neighbours so they currently aren't staying open very late. They hope to extend their opening hours next year.

Sager and Wilde

They kindly pointed us in the direction of Mr.Buckley's which is a bit further down the road, and helpfully stays open til 2am on Fridays and Saturdays.  I have passed it a few times on the way to Broadway Market and it always looked fun.  Upstairs, you can have food and drink - they open up at 10am Mon-Fri and 9am Sat-Sun for brunch.  We headed down to the late night bar underneath, which was surprisingly empty for such a nice place.  It's the perfect chilled out place to grab a late night drink, and the barmen know their stuff. One of them was keeping himself entertained by practicing his flair skills.

I was impressed by their bottled beers, and got myself a local Pressure Drop Pale Fire, whilst Al and Em went for wine (best of the night) and an alcohol-enhanced hot chocolate respectively.  London needs more relaxed late night bars like this which don't try and turn themselves in to clubs.  I'm very jealous of the Hackney Road locals who have so many friendly watering holes on their doorsteps.

Just as we were leaving, I asked the bartenders about a Pressure Drop beer that I hadn't seen before, bizarrely named "Wu Gang Chops the Tree" after a character from Chinese folklore who is known for endlessly cutting down a Bay Laurel on the Moon.  Neither of them had tried it before either, and so they just opened it up on the house, and poured it into three glasses.  Don't ask, don't get!  It calls itself a Forged Herb Hefeweisse - a pale and hazy wheat beer, with pronounced herbal notes, and hints of clove, citrus and banana.  It was a bit late for me to notice all of that, but it went down very easily.  Read more about Pressure Drop brews here.

I ended up crashing in Hoxton with Al and Em since I couldn't face a two night bus journey home, and I was conveniently heading out to Dalston the next day for Street Food Europe and more.  I will leave that all for another post however.  Em has now shot on to the Top 20 Leaderboard - she is currently tied for 16th on 11 points.  Al is not far away in 21st place on 9 points, whilst Jo and Ant have moved to 30th on 6 points. All to play for.

Sebright Arms - Canalival - PortSide Parlour

Saturday 1st June - The weather forecast said sun so I put together a plan around London Fields involving Coppa (the new rooftop bar and BBQ), the local brewery and Portside Parlour.  The sun was slow to rear its head, London Fields brewery had a sold out ticketed event (British Craft Beer Challenge) and my Team List members were delayed for various reasons so we had to come up with some new ideas.  I made my way to Hoxton with Team List leader Natalie (closing in on a half century) and we wandered up Hackney Road towards Broadway Market, where East Londoners James and Olly have just moved to.

Our first stop was going to be Quiquiriqui (a mezcaleria tucked away underneath a kebab shop) but this was sadly temporarily closed for renovations.  Thankfully, The List is very long so we went instead to the nearby Sebright Arms for a quick pint.  Foodie favourite Lucky Chip can be found here serving up burgers such as "Kevin Bacon" and "Royale wit Cheese" alongside other meaty delights.  Check out their new Licky Chop residency near London Fields too.  We begrudgingly saved space for dinner that was being cooked for us.  Sebright Arms has plenty else going for it anyway with a gig venue downstairs and a fantastic range of beer.  I had a delicious pint of Redwell Steam Lager which I hadn't come across before.  They have also started micro-brewing their own beer - Pure Evil Black IPA (in collaboration with Redchurch Brewery) is their first offering, with a brilliant label (see below) to match the name.

Pure Evil Black IPA

We moved off after one drink to find Olly and James who were caught up in the madness that was Canalival.  This crazy event that you probably read about this week was officially cancelled due to safety concerns over having too many people in inflatables on the water, but tonnes of revellers still turned up, floating their way down the canal with live music pumping out all day.  We dragged Olly and James away to get dinner on the move, and were joined by List regular Luke.  The atmosphere was electric by the lock at Broadway Market, though I was glad to be soaking it up from a safe distance on a balcony overlooking the canal.  We watched as flares, DJs, comedy shaped boats and impromptu games of catch the pineapple made their way past us.  Apparently the mess left behind was terrible - perhaps they will have a plan for this next year after all the bad press it received.  Go and read more on the Canalival Facebook wall for some lively arguments.

Pretty mad eh?  All this inflatable nonsense distracted our hosts so dinner was heavily delayed, making us incredibly late for our 9pm PortSide Parlour booking.  We eventually made our way along buzzing Broadway Market that was still filled with Canalivalers (that's a word).  I must return on a Saturday afternoon for the proper market experience.  PortSide Parlour is a pop-up rum bar below Off Broadway on Broadway Market, with the entrance disguised as a toilet cubicle - pulling the chain opens the door.  We sadly didn't get a chance to enter in style as there was a constant flow of people in and out of the door.

Our table was predictably given away to another group, but they were very kind to squeeze us on to another table instantly without a fuss - thanks must go to the group who happily let us share their table.    They pack people in to their small, candle-lit bar which had the feeling of being below deck on a rowdy rum-filled boat.  It is loud and busy in a good way, and one of the most atmospheric places that I have visited so far.  I must admit that I stuck to drinking wonderful Kernel Simcoe IPA beers out of a tankard whilst the rest of Team List tried out some cocktails.  They weren't blown away by their drinks but it certainly wouldn't put me off coming back as there was such a great vibe.  They are opening a second site nearby called PortSide Cabana on 29th June which promises to serve up Tiki drinks in a lush Cuban garden - you heard it here first!

Enormous thanks to James (for cooking) and Olly (for hosting) and also to Luke and Natalie for their continuing commitment to the cause.  Natalie moves on to 44 points (with more on the way after two more trips to Soho and Shoreditch this week) whilst late bloomer Luke moves up to 9.  Olly is meanwhile on 7 points ahead of James on 4.  I will be back for more Broadway Market / London Fields  adventures as there is so much left still to do in the area, and James has also promised a whopping Wapping jaunt once the sunshine is more reliable as he knows the pubs well. 

Coming up:

Rekorderlig Cider's Midsummer House in Victoria Park - 21st June to 5th July

Pimm's Summer Garden popup in Covent Garden - 19th to 29th June

Feast in Brick Lane Yard - 4th to 7th July - I spy an After Hours dessert special event there

Meatopia at Tobacco Dock - 7th September - a long way off and expensive but how can you resist with a name like that?

Etoo London at new Loading Café/Bar in Soho - London response to E3 gaming event