May has been pretty busy on the food and drink front so this month’s Eats, Sips & Snaps is a bumper edition – give those photos a chance to load! There have been openings aplenty, boozy events, birthday celebrations and more as London gears up for the summer season. Smokestak has launched a new lunch menu for their summer terrace, with hot smoked trout salad, coal roasted aubergine, and more alongside their signature brisket buns and refreshing cocktails. Another team with street food origins, Donostia Social Club, have followed up their Pop Brixton container with The Tapas Room in Tooting’s Broadway Market. It’s a great space in an increasingly exciting are for food and drink. The boozy launch party gave us an excuse to check out Craft Tooting‘s cosy beer bar and shop next door too.
5th birthday celebrations at 3Bis Gelateria in Borough Market brought the bloggers out in force, and I chased my ice cream aperitif with a taco trip to El Pastor and an unnecessary but enjoyable second dinner of Portuguese small plates at Bar Douro in a colourful Flat Iron Square. Continuing the European theme, we had more than one negroni at the launch of Bar Termini’s second site near Bond Street, and made regular trips to Italo Deli in Vauxhall for fresh pasta in beautiful surroundings.
There was an unexpected amount of pyrotechnics at the Brockman’s #PressForGin event, set in the atmospheric Victorian Bath House in Bishopsgate. They will launch another ‘Press For Gin’ bar for three nights in July (24th-26th) in a secret location. The tickets will be sold via Time Out for £25 per person – keep your eyes peeled for more info. The following day, we braved torrential rain to attend the book launch of Syria Recipes From Home (available to buy here). If the mezze from the party are anything to go by, it’s worth making room for it on your cookbook shelf.
Whilst in the area, we dropped into cocktail institution Trailer Happiness and Portobello Road Gin’s multi-level bar, distillery and hotel for G&Ts at GinTonica. The sunshine returned for the end of the week, just in time for a catch up with the Anspach & Hobday team at the opening of The Understudy’s temporary outdoor bar which features 4 A&H taps amongst others. Their Tea Saison collaboration with Brussels based L’Ermitage Nanobrasserie was tasting particularly fine.
I’ve spent a lot of time on the Southbank recently, mostly at The Hop Locker’s summer container beer bar, which you can read more about here. You can also find separate posts on lovely lunches at DUM Biryani and Blacklock City, a bar crawl around The Napoleon Hotel and beers at The Italian Job’s new pub near Westbourne Park. And to round off a manic month, there are also snaps from a superior meal with the London Cheap Eats crew at Foley’s in Fitzrovia, and from the launch of Borough Wines’ latest outpost in Battersea, round the corner from my flat. This will not be the last your here about this!
