7 minute read
Food & Drink
comeDIAns AnD crAFt Beers
Bermondsey Beer Mile favourite Anspach & Hobday are launching a new beer in collaboration with comedian Phil Wang and The Wine Society.
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To celebrate the collab, which is in support of the Orangutan Foundation, the independent brewers are hosting a Q&A event with Phil Wang, Anspach & Hobday co-founder Paul Anspach and buyer for The Wine Society Freddy Bulmer in their mixed fermentation brewery and taproom, The Arch House, in Bermondsey.
The OrwanguTang is a delicately salty Gose infused with orange zest and mandarin puree. The beer will be sold exclusively through The Wine Society and Anspach & Hobday’s online store, with 50p per can going directly to the Orangutan Foundation. The proceeds of just four cans is enough to sponsor a whole acre of crucial forest habitat in Central Kalimantan.
Phil Wang & The OrWanguTang Launch is at Anspach & Hobday: The Arch House, 118 Druid Street, SE1 2HH, on Wednesday 25 May (Doors open at 5pm; event starts at 7:30pm). Tickets: £5.
Bitesize ―
By Laura Burgoine
greAt BrItIsH BAkes
Frog Bakery has opened a new shop on Peckham Road following a successful crowdfunding campaign that took them from pop-up to permanent site. The bakery is the brainchild of two bakers, Oliver Costello and Rebecca Spaven, who’ve worked for Ottolenghi, Hawksmoor, Bread by Bike and Fortitude Bakehouse.
The new Camberwell bakery sells sourdough, classic viennoiserie, cakes, savoury bakes and sandwiches, with everything baked on-site and made from UK grown grains.
44 Peckham Road, Camberwell, London SE5 8PX, www.frogbakery.com
megAn’s oPen In eAst DuLWIcH
The city’s most dog-friendly restaurant is opening its 17th neighbourhood hotspot this month, launching in Lordship Lane, East Dulwich.
With a recently updated menu for summer, Megan’s is open every day for brunch, lunch, dinner and cocktails. The loosely-Mediterranean menu features classic brunch favourites including Eggs Royale and Smashed Avocado on Toast or their signature dish: lightly spiced Shakshouka Baked Eggs. For lunch there’s the famous ‘posh’ kebabs or a fresh deli bar, which features a range of toasted sandwiches and light bites. In the evening, it’s all about a vast menu of grills, salads and Mezze Feasts for two.
The restaurant prides itself on being dog, laptop and child friendly. They have plenty of dog beds, water bowls and treats to go around! People can also book to work from Megan’s, which offers free Wi-Fi for all guests and plugs at every corner so you can stay all day long – from morning espresso to post-work cocktail. Happy hour runs every weekday from 5-7pm, where selected cocktails are £5.
For more information, visit: www.megans.co.uk
new opening: BrIX LDn ―
By Cara Cummings
American-style hospitality comes to Great Guildford Street
Pity the food writers of 2022. Gastronomically inclined scribes must today navigate a world where language no longer means what it used to. Restaurants are now ‘concepts’, menus ‘a journey’ and the humble dinner a multi-course performance art piece with weapons-grade special effects and the marketing budget of a national tourist board. It’s hard to write restaurant reviews for restaurants that don’t want to be restaurants - but strap in, and we’ll give it a go.
BRIX LDN bills itself as a ‘project’. Specifically, the third project from Michael Lythgoe and Cidalia Rodrigues, the duo behind Brixton Village Grill (RIP) and Chip Shop, on the corner of Coldharbour Lane. Lythgoe and Rodrigues have experimental form - Chip Shop being as much an iconic live hip hop venue as a chippie - and at first glance, BRIX LDN is a rapid escalation of that innovative zeal. ‘PRIVATE DINING, EXHIBITIONS, ALL DAY DINING, HOT DESKS, ALBUM LAUNCHES, FILM SCREENINGS, WEEKLY DJs AND LIVE EVENTS’ screams the website with block-capitalled fervour. Project indeed.
Then again, BRIX LDN has a whopping 8,500 square feet of prime Bankside real estate to fill. Not that you’d realise at first glance - hovering just off Southwark Street like a shy aunt at a wedding, the venue is so modestly identified you’re likely to walk straight past and end up in Caravan next door.
But blimey, it’s a Tardis inside. Parallel bar and lounge spaces give way to a cavernous ground floor dining room. Private dining rooms and a late night bar-cum-club space sprawl below. Decor throughout is light-touch industrial meets urban American hotel; accessibly cool, rather than achingly on trend. It’s your mum in trainers, not your nephew in a kimono.
To those worn out by the warehouse trend, it will feel a bit meh - but in fairness BRIX LDN seems to be playing for a very mixed crowd. On the night we visit, first dates, family dinners and a raucous work social all play out. It feels like an airport lounge; you could happily lose several hours here without realising. ‘But what’s the vibe they’re going for?’ asks my dinner date. ‘New York…?’, I hazard a guess, spotting framed graffiti on a wall.
Encounters with staff confirm the hunch. Nowhere does hospitality quite like the States, and the BRIX LDN team personify service in its purest form: charming, attentive, discrete. The General Manager offers to choose a cocktail for me, which arrives with an American serve of ice and a not unpleasant hint of Jolly Ranchers sweets. Yep: we’re heading stateside.
The menu is mixed to the point of being baffling, featuring small plates, flatbreads, mains, a grill section,
burgers, fish and chips… definitely American in its determination to serve. That said, it’s the first menu I’ve seen without a weighty ethos or PR-scribed ‘vision’ in a long time. It’s refreshing to be allowed to form our own conclusions. Likewise, to see vegetarians amply catered for with ambitious choices like asparagus pot pie and a hemp and cauliflower burger. Not that carnivores will complain. “The chicken butter comes with fried chicken on top,” purrs a waiter. We may as well apply for US visas.
Small plate starters are impressive across the board. British asparagus with coconut cream, preserved lemon and fennel is so fresh it’s like eating a spring field. Sweetcorn chowder with roasted chickpeas and curry oil packs a deeply comforting punch, with the kind of flavour you need after a walk in a storm. I’ve never described a meaty doughnut as beautiful, until BRIX’s signature oxtail special lands on our table. Hearty yet dainty, it’s one of the strangest things I’ve ever cut into - but my goodness, what a dish. Meat and jam combine to produce the ultimate American umami: sweet, deep, salty and satisfying. So stuffed with tender oxtail are the doughnuts themselves that they positively burp when you move them. Much like me, afterwards.
Mains are enormous, without looking it. (A word on portions: Arrive. Hungry.) Marmite glazed beef short rib with kohlrabi remoulade, chilli and pecorino arrives perfectly cooked. Whoever mans the grill at BRIX clearly knows what they’re doing. The kohlrabi is clever, and keeps a heavy dish light, but risks watering down the overall offering. Sadly, the Marmite glaze looks much tastier than it is; you’d expect more than the mere hint of flavour achieved. It’s a genuine shame when meat is this expertly cooked. Rosemary chips make up for it, though - sassily seasoned, a joyous bowlful is worth visiting BRIX for alone. Likewise the hemp and cauliflower burger, a towering pillar of a meal stuffed with mango chutney and house pickles that will delight vegetarians and committed meat-lovers alike.
To puddings, and a similarly mixed bag. Dime bar cheesecake comes drowning in a berry coulis that sadly makes it taste like any other cheesecake. (And with just one singular piece of Dime bar in the entire slice, arguably it could be.) It's a proper coulis, full of succulent blitzed raspberries, but still. Gin infused doughnuts with cardamom, dulce de leches and pomegranate are much better - densely sweet like an Indian desert, full of syrupy goodness and an ambition you can taste. In other eateries, they’d be hard-sold as a house classic - but at BRIX LDN, they sit happily on the menu waiting to be discovered. They don’t need to be shouted about, or billed as anything other than what they are: a very good pudding.
Perhaps that’s the defining point, then, of this pleasant if slightly puzzling new venue. Instead of forcing an identity on diners, BRIX LDN provides a generous, warm environment for people to - whisper it - have whatever kind of dinner they’d like. In an era saturated with personality, its lack of ego could prove a secret weapon after all.
BRIX LDN, 16 Great Guildford St, London SE1 0HS. www.brixldn.com
