Ricco Review: 4.8 From 144, and the Formula Holds Again
Ricco Review: 4.8 From 144, and the Formula Holds Again | A small room, a short list, and somebody who knows – for the fortieth time in two surveys
Tag: bar review
Bar Amercain Review: There Is a Letter Missing
Bar Amercain Review: There Is a Letter Missing | It should be Americain. It is not. And it has been like that in the listing for years.
Baudry Greene Review: 4.8, and Two Names Nobody Will Explain
Baudry Greene Review: 4.8, and Two Names Nobody Will Explain | One hundred and sixty-seven people, a very high score, and a name that we have added to the unsolved list
Old Brewer’s Yard Review: One to Ten Pounds, in Covent Garden
Old Brewer’s Yard Review: One to Ten Pounds, in Covent Garden | The cheapest venue in the new Covent Garden file, and the third cheap room we have had to describe as endangered
Bat and Ball Review: 4.8, and Cricket Is Older Than the Rules
Bat and Ball Review: 4.8, and Cricket Is Older Than the Rules | Boys were playing it in a Guildford churchyard in 1550. The first written laws did not appear for another two hundred years.
Primo Review: The Hotel Bar Arbitrage, Which Nobody Uses
Primo Review: The Hotel Bar Arbitrage, Which Nobody Uses | Calm, well run, half empty – and Londoners are convinced they are not allowed in, and they are wrong
Bootlegger Review: The Other One Has a 5.0 From Twenty-Two People
Bootlegger Review: The Other One Has a 5.0 From Twenty-Two People | Same chain, same concept, two branches – and one has five hundred reviews and the other has twenty-two, and the difference is everything
Friendly Society Review: They Were the Welfare State Before the Welfare State
Friendly Society Review: They Were the Welfare State Before the Welfare State | Millions of working men paid a few pence a week into a club that would bury them – and the NHS made them obsolete overnight
Franklin’s Wine Review: Which Franklin, and Both Are Interesting
Franklin’s Wine Review: Which Franklin, and Both Are Interesting | One drank claret in London for sixteen years and then wrote the Declaration of Independence. The other vanished in the Arctic with 129 men.
Kensington Gardens Bar Review: Peter Pan Appeared Overnight
Kensington Gardens Bar Review: Peter Pan Appeared Overnight | Barrie had the statue erected in secret in 1912 so children would think it grew there. Then he gave the copyright away.
Freedom Review: A 3.7, and We Are Going to Defend It
Freedom Review: A 3.7, and We Are Going to Defend It | Twelve hundred people, a low number, and a venue that is being punished for exactly the thing that makes it useful
Ain’t Nothin’ But Review: The Blues Is Twelve Bars and Almost Nothing Else
Ain’t Nothin’ But Review: The Blues Is Twelve Bars and Almost Nothing Else | Three chords, a fixed structure, and a form so constrained that it has produced more music than any other in the world
Piano Bar Review: The Pub Piano Was Killed by a Jukebox
Piano Bar Review: The Pub Piano Was Killed by a Jukebox | Every pub of any size had one, and a man who could play it, and he was paid in beer
Palm House Review: Named After the Great Glass Houses of Empire
Palm House Review: Named After the Great Glass Houses of Empire | The palm house was the Victorian temple of exotic plants – glass cathedrals built to grow the tropics in the English cold
Noize Review: A 4.8, and the Best Bars Are the Quiet Ones
Noize Review: A 4.8, and the Best Bars Are the Quiet Ones | A noise level at which two people can hear each other is item three on the only specification that has ever mattered
Scootercaffe Review: 4.5, Under a Tenner, and There Is a Scooter
Scootercaffe Review: 4.5, Under a Tenner, and There Is a Scooter | A former scooter repair shop with the Vespa still in the window, and it is one of the cheapest rooms in the district
St Swithins Review: He Asked to Be Buried Outside and They Ignored Him
St Swithins Review: He Asked to Be Buried Outside and They Ignored Him | Swithin wanted the rain to fall on his grave. They moved him indoors in 971 and it rained for forty days.
Kamara Review: 4.9, and the Formula Has Never Once Failed
Kamara Review: 4.9, and the Formula Has Never Once Failed | Four hundred and fifteen people, an outstanding score, and the same three things every single time
Soho Theatre Bar Review: The Wave Comes at 7:15 and Again at 10:30
Soho Theatre Bar Review: The Wave Comes at 7:15 and Again at 10:30 | Every venue near a theatre is built around two moments a night, whether it knows it or not
Cecil Beaton Bar Review: He Dressed Eliza Doolittle
Cecil Beaton Bar Review: He Dressed Eliza Doolittle | He designed My Fair Lady – the story of a Covent Garden flower girl – and won two Oscars for it. He also photographed the Blitz.
SiNK Pong Review: No Rating, No Reviews, No Trace
SiNK Pong Review: No Rating, No Reviews, No Trace | The third venue in four postcodes with nothing at all – and we have now worked out exactly why this happens
Samuel Pepys Review: He Buried His Cheese in the Garden
Samuel Pepys Review: He Buried His Cheese in the Garden | As the Great Fire came up the street he dug a pit and saved his wine and a Parmesan. It is the most honest sentence in English literature.
Stein’s Review: German Beer, and the Stein That Isn’t a Stein
Stein’s Review: German Beer, and the Stein That Isn’t a Stein | A Bavarian beer hall on the Thames, named after a drinking vessel that Germans do not actually call a stein
Aqua Spirit Review: They Thought They Were Distilling the Water of Life
Aqua Spirit Review: They Thought They Were Distilling the Water of Life | Aqua vitae, eau de vie, uisge beatha, akvavit – every strong drink in Europe is named after a claim to immortality
Bradley’s Review: There Is a Vinyl Jukebox and It Is Not Nostalgia
Bradley’s Review: There Is a Vinyl Jukebox and It Is Not Nostalgia | A tiny two-floor bar with a 45 jukebox, and it is one of the last rooms in London where somebody else chooses
Hithe and Seek Review: A Hithe Is a Landing Place
Hithe and Seek Review: A Hithe Is a Landing Place | Rotherhithe, Queenhithe, Greenhithe, Lambeth – the word is all over the map and almost nobody knows what it means
Melody Whisky Bar Review: The Angels Take Two Per Cent a Year
Melody Whisky Bar Review: The Angels Take Two Per Cent a Year | Every year, a portion of every cask of maturing whisky evaporates and is gone. The trade calls it the angels’ share and simply accepts it.
Cosy Review: Hygge Was Sold Back to Us as a Candle
Cosy Review: Hygge Was Sold Back to Us as a Candle | The Danish word means a room where nobody is performing, and it arrived in Britain as a range of soft furnishings
Simmons Review: The Eighth One, and It Still Will Not Drift
Simmons Review: The Eighth One, and It Still Will Not Drift | 4.8, 4.8, 4.7, 4.7, 4.7, 4.7, 4.5 – across eight postcodes and seventeen thousand people, and no other chain is close
Steel Yard Review: A German Trading Colony Stood Here for 400 Years
Steel Yard Review: A German Trading Colony Stood Here for 400 Years | The Hanseatic League had its own walled compound on the Thames, with its own laws, its own gates, and a curfew