April 2010
2 posts
L'Art du Fromage
“A restaurant devoted to cheese? This is the best birthday EVER,” my email to R read after she suggested a celebratory meal. Let me give you some context. Upon leaving a job a few years ago, one of my leaving presents was an M&S cheeseboard in honour of my habit of having a bowl of feta drizzled in olive oil on hung-over mornings. The morning after more than a few ‘I’m leaving!!’ drinks, I...
Acorn House
People can mimble on about the regeneration of Kings Cross but I’m not convinced – the hookers may have moved on but in the pouring rain, it’s still pretty grim. Acorn House is not easy to find, being on the ground floor of a grey, unprepossessing office block (albeit with their lovely logo with its tinge of whimsy on the wall) away from the main drag, but the chill and raindrops were chased...
February 2010
1 post
Boho Mexica
On first impression, Boho Mexica ticked all the right boxes. Random location on an ugly stretch of Commercial Road so it glows like a kiddies jewel box - check. Cosy interior with mismatched lightshades and old-school kitsch Mexican posters – check. Low ‘authentic music’, which made us all unconsciously shimmy and JB remark it felt like being on holiday- check.
Like most first impressions,...
December 2009
1 post
Pizza East
There is a definite low-level buzz to Pizza East – being checked in by the Grace Jones look-alike at the door was enough to make us feel special. “You here for pizza’? she quizzed us, squinting at a list. I later discovered in a woozy wander downstairs to find some fags that there is a smart-looking bar in the basement. It’s a far cry from the T-Bar which was the place’s grubby previous...
November 2009
1 post
The Pale Blue Door
B was clutching his iphone with the navigation switched on (‘don’t turn it off’, I yelped) as we alighted the bus and crossed over the road in the dusky Dalston night. We passed a group of hood-clad guys loitering outside a cab office – no doubt sniggering at the sight of yet another pair of middle-class, East End newbies looking terrified. Turning up a dark passageway we spotted a fairy- lit...