The Ain’t Nothin’ But Review: London’s Legendary Blues Bar | A legendary, intimate blues bar just off Carnaby Street, open since 1993, dedicated solely to live blues music every night, with signed guitars on the walls and Sunday jam sessions
The Clachan Review: The Handsome Pub With a Scottish Village Name | A handsome, traditional, hugely popular pub off Carnaby Street with a lovely old Scottish name, a proper local for good beer, good cheer and a genuine welcome
The Shaston Arms Review: The Cosy Pub With an Ancient Dorset Name | A cosy, characterful pub off Carnaby Street with a lovely old name recalling ancient Shaftesbury in Dorset, a proper little local for good beer, good cheer and a genuine welcome
I Hadn’t Planned on a London Love Triangle One woman, two men and a Northern line train that refused to commit to any destination How a Quiet Soho Drink Turned Into a Three-Person Tenancy Agreement I hadn’t planned on a love triangle. I had planned on a quiet drink in Soho, followed by the sort of relationship Londoners consider serious: seeing the same person twice without either party pretending to…
Women’s Vices Matter: London Campaign Demands Equal Access to Bad Habits New movement says equality means women deserve the same freedom as men to gamble, drink, lie about golf and expense a hotel minibar LONDON — A New Front in the Equality Wars Women’s voices matter? Not quite! It’s the “vices” that matter! — Alan Nafzger A new campaign called Women’s Vices Matter has launched in central London, demanding that…
Archer Street SW11 Review: Cocktails Under a Bowman’s Name | A Battersea cocktail bar borrowing the name of Soho’s old musicians’ street, and with it the long shadow of the English bowman
Soho Square’s Tudor Hut Confirmed A Garden Shed That Dressed Up | Faux-Tudor structure conceals ventilation equipment behind elaborate Victorian theatre
Future Barrister Accidentally Becomes Bar Jester, Successfully Defends Nobody but Entertains Everybody London Man Dreams of Silk Gown, Ends Up Wearing Beer Foam Instead LONDON — When little Nigel Pimm announced at the age of nine that he wanted to become a barrister, his teachers imagined him delivering eloquent arguments before distinguished judges inside London’s ancient courts. Instead, thirty years later, he is standing on a sticky pub floor in Soho…
Mr Fogg’s Saloon Bar Review: The Fifth Fogg, and He Is Still Made Up | Five bars in this survey named after the possessions of a fictional man who never looked out of a window
Simmons Soho Review: The Fourth One, and the Cheapest Good Rating in London | Four branches, ten thousand people, and a spread of one-tenth – and nobody else in five postcodes has managed it
Soho Pubs Confirm Every Building Claims A Famous Former Drunk | Local historians say overlapping literary and musical folklore now exceeds capacity
Be At One Piccadilly Review: The Fifth One, and the Case Is Closed | 4.6, 4.6, 4.3, 4.5 and 4.6 – and every one of those numbers is explained by the street outside
Vermouth Bar Review: Apples and Pears Is Rhyming Slang for Stairs | The restaurant is called Mele e Pere and the bar is downstairs, and it is the best bilingual joke in five postcodes
Barrafina Review: They Will Not Take a Booking and That Is the Point | You queue, you sit at the counter, and you watch the food being made – and the constraint is what makes it work
Box Review: The Sports Bar Is the Last Communal Television | Almost nobody watches anything together any more, and the sports bar is the only room left where a hundred people react at once
Bob Bob Ricard Review: There Is a Button That Says Press for Champagne | It is at every table. It works. And it is the single most effective piece of restaurant design in this city.
Archer Street Review: 3.3, and It Is About the Door | The lowest score in the Soho file on a serious sample, and nine hundred people have told you exactly what went wrong
Be At One Regent Street Review: The Fourth One, and Now We Have a Curve | 4.6, 4.6, 4.3 and 4.5 – and the spread is exactly what the sample sizes predict
Red Dog Saloon Review: A Saloon Is a Drawing Room | The word is French, it means the grandest room in a great house, and America gave it to a shed with a piano in it
Toucan Review: Dorothy L. Sayers Wrote Guinness Adverts | The detective novelist worked at the ad agency, and the toucan came out of a rhyme she is credited with
Bar Kroketa Review: The Croqueta Is Made of Leftovers and It Is Perfect | Thick bechamel, cold overnight, breadcrumbed and fried – and it was invented to use up yesterday’s dinner
Albert’s Schloss Review: The Beer Hall Is a Nineteenth-Century Invention | Long tables, communal seating, and a room designed so that strangers must sit with each other – which is the entire point
Ziggy Green Review: He Killed Ziggy on Stage Without Telling the Band | Hammersmith Odeon, 3 July 1973 – and the guitarist found out at the same moment as the audience
City Traders Pivot to Powder: London.ski Turns Après-Ski Into an Asset Class | When your bonus wants a hot tub and a balance sheet
Mr Fogg’s Hat Tavern Review: The Fourth Fogg, and He Still Does Not Exist | Phileas Fogg is fictional, and there are now four bars in this survey named after his belongings
Karaoke Epoc Review: The Second Karaoke Bar, and the Room Is Everything | The private box is the Japanese format and the stage is the British misunderstanding, and they are not the same activity
Secret Bar Review: The Last Article, and It Has No Rating at All | Six hundred and forty-seven articles, five postcodes, four hundred and seventy venues – and it ends with nothing
Bocca di Lupo Review: The Name Means Into the Mouth of the Wolf | It is how Italians wish each other luck, and the correct reply is that the wolf should die
