Vagabundo - Crust Conductor - Small White Elephant

Saturday 13th December - Previous visits to Peckham have seen broken projectors and powercuts attempting to disrupt my plans.  Surely nothing could go wrong at brunch o'clock?

On a friend's recommendation, we went in search of Vagabundo, a "bastardised Brazilian BBQ" tucked away in the Ali Baba Bar behind the Bussey Building.  In my haste to make it look to my companions like I knew where I was going, I confidently walked in to someone's cupboard by mistake.  I was more careful after that, and we were soon sitting down inside Vagabundo's temporary home for some breakfast (served 10am-4pm on Sat & Sun).

After a lengthy discussion about jackfruit, we all settled on the Cassava Pancake with Slow Cooked Egg, Black Beans, Coriander and Smoked Ham Hock (£7) with unlimited Allpress Filter Coffee.  The brunch menu is pretty simple with slight variations on our dish, plus an enticing sweet version with Caramelised Banana, Doce de Leite, Cinnamon Yoghurt & Brazil Nuts.  Or you can mix sweet & salty with the "Brazilian Elvis" - Pancake with Fried Banana, Smoked Ham Hock, Peanut Butter & Brazil Nuts.

Cassava Pancake with Slow Cooked Egg, Black Beans, Coriander and Smoked Ham Hock

If you can't make it for brunch, look out for their £25 a head BYOB dinners which feature the likes of Feijoada Coxinhas with Grilled Pineapple & Chilli, and Coffee Braised Ox Cheek with Cassva Gnocchi and Fermented Red Onions.  They may be finished for the moment until 2015 so keep track of their Twitter & Tumblr feeds.

It's a busy little area around the Copeland Park industrial estate that's worth exploring.  There's some great street art, plus more food & drink options including the fabulous Forza Win.

----------------------------------

For our next stop, we made our way past the buzzing Peckham Refreshment Rooms on Blenheim Grove to reach the Brick Brewery.  With a Peckham Red Rye in hand, we made our way out to the front yard to find the Crust Conductor, a wood-fired pizza party bus from the man behind the local Gowlett Arms.

We were too stuffed full of Vagabundo brunch to consider pizza, but we did enjoy having the top floor of a converted bus to ourselves with frosty December lighting bursting through the windows.

It will be open again this weekend on Friday 19th & Saturday 20th December.  Who knows if it will be around here in 2015 - check their Twitter feed for updates.  And if you can't make it to the Crust Conductor, then there's always the Big Red Pizza bus in Deptford.

The Brick Brewery tap room is currently open Fri­day evenings 5pm-9pm and again on Satur­days from midday-9pm.  You can sample the core range of cask, keg or bot­tled beers as well as small run exclu­sives avail­able only at the tap room.

Matt The Tip : Drop in for another drink or two at Bar Story and Peckham Springs in the same section of railway arches as Brick Brewery.

--------------------------------------------------------

To close the loop, we walked down Choumert Grove and turned left on to Choumert Road.  The short stretch from here back to Rye Lane is packed full of goodies including Café Viva, Southerden, and Lois. A small, Andalucian tapas bar called Miss Tapas has just opened here this week too.

We settled though for Small White Elephant - Choumert Road's tea den / espresso joint / micro gallery / performance space / indoor jungle.  Oh, and book exchange.

It's a cosy spot for an Alchemy coffee and a read of The Peckham Peculiar if you can find a seat amongst the plants.  Push the boat out with a Vietnamese drip which is brewed directly in to the glass.

Vietnamese Drip Coffee

Drop by this Thursday (18th December) for their Christmastime Night Market (5pm-10pm) featuring stalls by local artists, coffee paraphernalia and free mince pies!

N.B. Small White Elephant is closed on Tuesdays.

For other top coffee options in Peckham, check out Chloe Callow's Peckham Cafe Guide on www.londonsbestcoffee.com.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Peckham Restaurants - Begging Bowl // Artusi // Peckham Bazaar // Peckham Refreshment Rooms

Peckham Beers - Four Quarters // Beer Rebellion // Brick Brewery

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nanban at Market House - Shrub & Shutter - Three Eight Four - Rosie's Deli

Saturday 30th August - Here comes another evening of food & drink in Brixton, but did we end up at Seven or Craft as usual? Cast your votes now.

Team Brixton assembled at Market House, a Brixton bar bringing in the crowds with smartly chosen food residencies.  We went along to try out Nanban, Japanese soulfood from 2011 Masterchef Champion Tim Anderson (the youngest ever winner at 26).  His stint as manager of The Euston Tap (beer haven) and multiple collaborations with Pressure Drop Brewing are of more interest to me!

One problem with food residencies for chefs is not having total control.  I say this because Market House weren't very interested in fitting us in without a booking, despite there being an hour and a half window on some empty tables.  Eventually we decided to just sit down on one and force through an order, and *shock horror* everything arrived within 15 minutes and we were out within an hour.  Other groups were turned away - throwing away money.  And since when do trendy, hipster, popup, food residency thingamajigs take bookings? I can't keep up.

Making our minds up quickly, we ordered four bowls of ramen, bypassing tempting sides of Karaage and Ackee & Saltfish Korokke.  To drink, I was hoping to get a special Pressure Drop Nanban Kanpai on the side (wheat beer with yuzu, grapefruit and orange juices) but they were fresh out.  However, my Nagashima Iced Tea (with smoked black tea liqueur, patron tequila, peach schnapps, jasmine syrup, lemon juice) was an excellent replacement, especially at £5.

I thoroughly enjoyed my comforting bowl of Kumamoto Ramen (rich tonkotsu broth, pork belly, tea-pickled egg, fried garlic chips, burnt garlic oil, fermented greens etc).  Perhaps I'll tea-pickle my eggs this weekend, any tips?  Are greens still one of your five-a-day if they are fermented? Who knows.

My companions all went for Brown Stew Chicken Ramen (thick and spicy tomato-miso broth, pulled chicken, fried shallots, pickled Scotch Bonnets, slow-cooked egg, and miso-pickled Daikon), which was a much more filling affair.  In fact, two were defeated by it!  I prefer my ramen much less thick personally, but the flavours were good.

Kumamoto Ramen

Brown Stew Chicken Ramen

No time for their famous Whippy-San ice creams, or shots of Shochu, it really was a flying visit.  I hope Nanban settles down in a permanent location soon - I'll be back for some more thorough research.  Keep tabs on them via their Facebook page or Twitter.

------------------------------------------------------

Next stop was the soft opening of The Shrub & Shutter, a new cocktail bar from Chris Edwards and Dave Treganza (aka cocktail consultants Salts of the Earth).  

We were warmly welcomed with a Nuclear Daiquiri of sorts (with an apple sour ice cube / sweet at the bottom) and an impressive plate of snacks, a hint of small plates to come once fully open.  

After a quick skim of the menu, we ordered our first round.  

Bandage of Brothers (snow queen vodka, poppy liqueur, wolfschmidt kummel, sherbert, sweetener, gunpowder) came with a little army man attached via a plaster, and a banger to throw on the floor at any time - the element of surprise and all that.  All good fun, though I'm not entirely sure how the super sweet drink connects to the title.  

The Shrub & Shutter intrigued Luke with blowtorched fennel & chlorophyll bitters garnishing a glass of gin, green chartreuse, maraschino, cucumber shrub and toasted fennel sugar.  

Lauren opted for a No Stone Left Unturned - effectively a sour with a choice of spirits and rotating flavour based on the stone fruit of the day (cherry in this case).  

However, I feel I made the best choice with Does A Bear Shit in the Woods? - St George's Terroir Gin (made with pine), Akvavit (distilled Scandinavian spirit), pine bitters and mancino ambrato vermouth served with smoked salmon on the side.  I can't resist a "spirits-focused" drink and this Scandi gin martini twist was right up my street, and the salmon (working well with the pine) was an added bonus.

Blackboards for all to use take up one wall

For round two, Caroline ordered pudding in the form of Wonka Bar - gin, vanilla ice cream, chocolate soil, truffle, gold leaf and truffle bitters.  The finer ingredients seemed to get lost in the mix but it was a very drinkable boozy milkshake.

Luke's Little Miss Sunshine was one of the more conventional drinks on the menu - an attractive sunny Bloody Mary with Beluga Vodka, Isle of Wight yellow tomato, tomato water, roasted balsamic shrub, celery, spice & seasoning - very tasty at all times of the day.

Vegetarians should steer clear of The Deer Hunter - woodford bourbon, orange, romeo y julieta bitters and birch sap, with a hunk of venison on the side for good measure.  Boozy and delicious.

Dare I say it, I think I won round two as well.  You Can't Handle Chartreuse arrived in a wonderful bath-shaped glass (don't go stealing them now!), with chilled gummy bears and neat squares of green chartreuse jelly on top. If only bathtime always involved Portobello Road gin, Del Maguey mezcal, yellow chartreuse, pineapple, lemon & elderflower.  

Does a bear shit in the woods?, Bandage of Brothers, Little Miss Sunshine, Wonka Bar

The Deer Hunter, The Shrub and Shutter, No Stone Left Unturned

You Can't Handle Chartreuse

All the while we were serenaded by a jazz trio who squeezed themselves into the corner of the relatively small back room.  Live music will be a regular occurrence, think ragtime / blues piano.  

Only half the cocktails were available on our visit, so I'm sure they have plenty more surprises up their sleeves, including some wacky sharing cocktails.  A return visit is in order for more research, but on this showing Shrub & Shutter will be a popular addition to the Brixton bar scene.  Well done lads.

------------------------------------------------

Our third stop on Coldharbour Lane (efficient eh?) was Three Eight Four, a small plates restaurant and cocktail bar from those clever folk at Seven.

Seven has made it on to Matt The List an unprecedented three times, as almost every Brixton trip seems to involve a couple of their fantastic £5 cocktails, so expectations were high for Three Eight Four.  The fact that the bar was at full capacity when we arrived only added to the anticipation.  

Thankfully, a large group soon left and we crammed in at the bar.  They won me over instantly with their well-lit bar surface, how novel to be able to read the menu and actually see your drink.  It's a good-looking place in general, which is no surprise given Seven's funky décor.

Cocktails are competitively priced at £6-£7.50 a pop, except for the rather special Mr.Flambastic at £8.75 - Blackwell's dark & Red Leg spiced rums mixed with Cointreau, shaken with flambéed peaches in Gran Capataz brandy, theatrically created at the end of the bar.

I went straight for a Smoked Manhattan - Pikeseville Rye with Punt e Mes, Luxardo Maraschino, stirred & smoked on the spot to great effect.  I wasn't so taken with the Negroni Sbagliato - Campari & Punt e Mes, stirred & topped with sparkling red wine. Very much an acquired taste, aggressively bitter and almost medicinal.  

Caroline chose well with Bombay Kitchen - Opihr Indian spiced gin & Koko Kanu rum, coriander, mint, tabasco & mango juice, with a side of papadum & chutney.  It arrived in a cezve, a pot usually used to make Turkish coffee.  There was just the right amount of tabasco, and the normally dominant cardamom heavy Opihr played well with others.

Last but not least was Tart'n Tide - Auchentoshan lowland whisky, stirred w/ Licor 43, Cointreau, lemon & honey, over a seaweed infused ice ball.  We ordered two of these which came out rather different to one another, perhaps an extra splash of Licor 43 found its way into one of them, but both were very enjoyable. Don't let the seaweed put you off, order this if you like a boozy whisky cocktail.

Bombay Kitchen

Smoked Manhattan

They've created an interesting little menu and there were some real winners in there, and at £7 they represent great value, though not quite enough to knock Seven off its perch as my favourite Brixton bar.  Classic cocktails are also available, alongside well-chosen wines and beers, and some old school American soft drinks (e.g. Dr Pepper Vanilla Float, Dad's Root Beer).

The food will have to wait for another time, but I'm sure you won't go far wrong with the likes of reuben sliders, slow-cooked beef brisket, 'nduja with ricotta on bread, and pear & pecorino salad.

View the menu and follow Matt The List on Zomato

---------------------------

One more thing to quickly mention.  We wandered round the corner in to Brixton Village to have a quiet drink at Sean's Bar to finish, which is usually housed inside Rosie's Deli in the evenings, only to find that Sean is no longer there.  Apparently, he is looking to open up again in a new space in Brixton soon, though he is keeping busy with Sean's Thai Bar in Balham in the meantime.  

Anyway, there is still a bar there, now run by the Rosie's Deli staff, and not a lot has changed.  It's still a fun, relaxed spot for simple mixed drinks, beers and wines with some tempting food available for those that need it.  Prices have gone up a little bit, but nothing drastic.  Luke and I enjoyed bottled beers from Brick Brewery (Peckham) and the local Brixton Brewery, whilst Robyn had the world's biggest Aperol Spritz (£6). A cosy spot to end any evening.

Rosie's Deli is open all weekdays 'til 5.30, Thursday, Friday, Saturday evenings 'til 11, Sunday 10-5

Brixton: Nowhere near as good as Brixton thinks it is.
— Tweat_Up (@Tweat_Up) August 29, 2014

Each to their own, I guess. Definitely wrong though.  Brixton is great.

Oh, and we might have popped to Craft Beer Co afterwards very briefly. What can you do?

Brockley Market - Brockley Brewery - Hackney Brewery - Drink Feast

Saturday 14th December - It's over nearly three months since my excursion to Brockley Market, but it's on every Saturday so let's just pretend it was last week, ok?

Sister Jo emigrated to Brockley a couple of years ago, and I finally made it out there before Christmas with the draw of a trip to Brockley Market sealing the deal.  The market is open every Saturday from 10am-2pm in Lewisham College Car Park.  The closest station is in fact St. John's, but it is a pleasant 10 minute walk away from both Brockley and Lewisham.

The market has a little bit of everything - cakes, cheese, wine, chocolate, meat, beer, and some of London's best street food traders.  On the stalls front, we were particularly taken with the Cinnamon Tree Bakery shortbread owls, and pretty much everything at the Vadasz Deli pickles & sauerkraut stand - Kimchi kraut, sprout kraut & garlic & dill kraut all went down very nicely.

Outside of Kerb & Street Feast, Brockley Market has the best selection of street food traders every week.  Van Dough, Mother Flipper, Ruby Violet, Tongue & Cheek (currently in The Joker), Fleischmob (currently in Hand of Glory) and more packed in to the market on our visit.  

We started with one of Mike + Ollie's incredible Lamb Flatbread Wraps, one of the most delicious street food options in London.  Look out for their supper clubs.  Our second main was a large pile of Memphis BBQ Turkey Poutine from Spit & Roast - a heart warming plate of chips covered in cheese curds, turkey mince, and gravy.  Their Buttermilk Fried Chicken bap with Korean hot sauce is also a winner.

Mike + Ollie Lamb Flatbread Wrap

We finished off with a dosant (cronut, cro-dough etc etc) from Kooky Bakes, surprisingly my first foray into the over-hyped croissant vs doughnut field.  Flavours were good, but the pastry had an almost oily taste to it that didn't sit right.  I'll give them another chance, I'm sure.

There are plenty of other lovely places to stop off in Brockley if you want to make a day of it.  You could take a stroll through Hillyfields to find a couple of stalls and Pistachios in the Park.  The Gantry is a sophisticated little restaurant with separate cosy rooms downstairs - people spill out the front & there is seating in the garden in the summer.  The Orchard is a friendly bar & kitchen with comfy seats, nice lighting, boardgames and books. Brockley's Rock is not your average fish & chip shop, with the likes of Grilled Seabass and Salmon on the menu.

We paid a quick visit to the relatively new Brockley Brewery which opens up to the public on Saturdays (normally 10-2 ish but check Facebook or Twitter).  They have bottles & posters to buy, milk cartons to fill up, and fresh beer for sale including Pale Ale, Red Ale & Golden Ale.  They are launching a Porter today (March 7th) and having a One Year Birthday Bash on March 14th with craft beer and live local bands from 8-11pm.

Brockley may be getting more great beer soon in the form of LDN Dispensary, another beer & burger bar from the Late Knights Brewery team after the success of Beer Rebellion in Gipsy Hill.  Peckham & Penge are also on the cards.

My phone charger was on the fritz, so I had to be careful to link up with people at exact times all day and use numbers written down on actual paper (who knew it was still useful?), hence why I met up with friend Sam for a brief hour in Horniman at Hay's for a couple of pints and the use of his phone. It's a great spot for a drink if you can get a seat outside on the river looking out at HMS Belfast, but it does get packed after work.

After that, I worked my way over to Hoxton for 5pm to link up with my final carer for the evening, Tom.  We were on our way over to Drink Feast but decided to poke our heads into the Hackney Brewery en route.  They don't have a taproom but were happy to chat to us over a beer as they cleaned up for the day.

They have been up and running for 2 years, which makes them pretty old on the London beer scene. Their Best Bitter and American Pale Ale are regular pints for me around London - highly recommended. They are in high demand, so perhaps a bigger kit / space beckons in the not too distant future for expansion.

Finally, we made it to Drink Feast - an ambitious "immersive" bar event from Offbeat that ran all weekend in the wonderful Hoxton Docks.  They gathered some of London's best bars together, designed the space like a film set, and brought in some amusing actors to tie it all together - sounds bonkers, but it worked.

We started off at an apothecary bar chatting to an enthusiastic doctor before moving on to the Travelling Gin Co., a pop-up drinks project serving up gin-based cocktails from their bicycle bars. They plan to make their own gin in the future, but already have their own Colonial Tonic (a collaboration with Ebeltoft Farm Brewery) made using Cinchona Tree bark that provides a natural source of quinine.  The result is a bitter sweet tonic, golden brown in colour, that is a million miles from Schweppes.  I experimented with it at home with the likes of Gordon's, Bombay Sapphire & Hendricks, and found lots of new flavours coming through.  Keep track of their blog to see where they might be popping up next.

The boys from Nola were down whipping up Hurricanes and more as usual - make sure you go for the full live music & cocktails experience at their bar above Bedroom Bar in Shoreditch.  Pisco Fuego brought a sample of their Latin drinking & dining experience down with their medicine-bottled cocktails.

We made some new friends outside the Hoxton Docks tequila & sangrita bar (cosily tucked into a shipping container) before heading over to the Kindred Spirits bar.

Kindred Spirits was a pop-up bar shared between Bán Poitín and Vestal Vodka.  I was already very familiar with Vestal Vodka after going on an awesome Vestal Voyage cocktail canal trip on Regent's Canal last year.  They are still running the experience regularly and I highly recommend taking them up on it! There was a decadent Drink Feast option of arriving in to the Hoxton Docks space on the Vestal Voyages boat.

Bán & Vestal - Kindred Spirits

Vestal owner William Borrell was on hand to chat about their superb range that really are a cut above most of the competition, from the creamy Kazebe vodka to the hard-to-find Amber Elderflower liqueur. They have also recently teamed up with Dalston Cola to make a vodka coke worth drinking!

Sharing the bar were Bán, a boutique spirit company bringing back Poitín, a very strong Irish distilled spirit that was banned for over 300 years - it can clock in anywhere between 40%-90%.  At 52.7%, most people will want to mix Bán but it is drinkable on its own!  Cara from Bán made us two fantastic flaming Leprechaun Zombies (see below) that were dangerously quaffable.  The best place to sample Bán in London is definitely Shebeen - an Irish bar with generous happy hours tucked below Kentish Canteen, dedicated to Poitín.

Shoreditch Grind were doing a roaring trade, shifting Espresso Martinis as fast as they could.  Barchick were also tucked away in a corner, running a bonkers little disco bar - they seemed to be having a pretty good time themselves with the limbo combined with shots keeping them entertained.

Shoreditch Grind

Our favourite bartenders of the night were the guys from Bon Vie Recruitment who looked after the Ruski's stall for the night. Ruski's is a vodka & caviar tavern, which is currently moving to a new location after opening briefly in High Street Kensington opposite their sister venue Bodo's Schloss at the end of last year.

We sampled a fair amount of the very drinkable smooth Belenkaya vodka, before Tom got into a lengthy discussion with one of the character actors about conductor Valery Gergiev and anti-gay legislation in Russia - whether she was interested (or indeed Russian) or not, she kept a straight face and earnestly chatted away.

We ended the evening listening to to Benoit Viellefon & His Orchestra, an excellent gypsy jazz band that I coincidentally seen for the first time days before at The Last Word.  If hot club swing jazz is your thing, then you need to get yourself over to Le Quecumbar in Battersea.

There were street food trucks on hand to soak up some of the booze - they were quite hard to find, but allowed the bars to take centre stage.

Offbeat really pulled it off at Drink Feast, and I am glad they are doing it all again this summer.  My photos don't do justice to the stunning event that they created, and the friendly atmosphere with actors & bartenders joining forces was a joy to experience.  Pre-release tickets go on sale on 1st April - put that date in your diary, and I'll see you there!