Commercial Tavern Review.

Exterior of the (rather wonderful) Commercial Tavern.

I’m not convinced by Shoreditch’s drinking holes. At the weekend the Old Street end is full of marauding hen and stag nights. The other parts are full of scenesters and then there are the junkies and nasties hanging around to prey on them. Late at night the place has a palpable air of aggression. I also now find the carefully eclectic interiors with ironic bits and pieces annoying. Twenty years ago it was charming but now you can almost produce a list of requirements for bars and pubs of this genre:

A neon sign saying anything (but sadly not C***y like the Colony Rooms)

Gaudy flocked wall paper

Graffiti ‘art’ in the loos

A print of Elvis, Bob Dylan, Dennis Hopper (delete as appropriate)

A lot of crappy old mid century furniture

A couple of mashed old sofas

One really expensive piece of furniture (just so you know they are actually really quite wealthy but are just being sarky)

A glitter ball

Barman in twat hat who calls himself a ‘mixologist’

Vaguely disinterested service

Pleased with itself Indie soundtrack interspersed with old ska and dotted with Lady Gaga or Cheryl Cole (like, we’ve got a sense of humour, ya)

Now I am not a Camraphiliac and prefer a cocktail to a pint but I do think that there are a few things that are essential for a pub or bar to be able to hold it’s head up high in London. Considering the prices and the hype of the trendy East End the bar should be set even higher. The interior should be fit for purpose and appealing and the staff should be interested and efficient. A decent range of wine and well kept draught beers is a good thing as are decent cocktails. These things are basics, desirable extras include a regular friendly clientele and an interesting sociable landlord. Personally I am not too concerned about food, but am satisfied with decent pork pies, scotch eggs or a bag of crisps. East London does however have a couple of good bars and pubs, and one of my favourites which manages to be fashionable, arty and yet still a decent pub is the Commercial Tavern.

I first visited this place on a hot Sunday afternoon a month ago, en route to Soho Shoreditch House. This used to be a very grotty pub, but it is now a jewel box of a place. It was always an attractive building with its circular façade. Now the interior is a fantasy of antique wall papers, distressed painted wood work and furniture in pale palette. In the airy upstairs bar you sit at tables next to wide windows watching the street below. If this sounds a bit twee it is not the case because the décor is not the usual corporate take on notting hill ethereal but a bit gothic and Alice through the Looking Glass.


There is a wit to the place that is playful rather than archly knowing and just a little dark. In the upstairs bar the plates on the wall feature, on closer examination a bestiary of creatures such spiders and cockroaches creeping across the porcelain. Above the doorway a flock of stuffed birds stare down and I felt momentarily like Tippi Hedren. Another wall is covered with jigsaw pieces painted gold which must have been a painstaking process. The gents (I was informed) is wallpapered with Popeye and chums whilst the games room has paintings of iconic Eastenders adorning the walls. It is pretty, witty but not ‘up itself’.

The pub sells Greenwich Meantime beers on draught. The first time I went in I was vacillating in front of the barmaid about my drink. Even though busy she volunteered options and offered to give me a taste of anything I wanted. How refreshing. The second time I visited I had both cocktails and wine, both of which were good quality. The cocktail choice was limited, but it was nice they were available and the one I had was well made and inexpensive. The rose I subsequently glugged was also moreish.

Perhaps the real strength of the place is the landlady: Maria. This is definitely her pub and her personality, having met her is stamped all over the place. A stylish husky- voiced lady she was present both times I visited. It is sad that so many places now are just corporately managed. A good pub or bar requires someone with character at its helm. We had a fantastic evening, I don’t remember getting home, feel I should apologise to the bar staff for something or the other and one of my group found lots of polaroids none of us remembers being taken in her pockets. They depict us looking inebriated yet very happy -one of the best waking states to find oneself in.

This place might not suit some, but it definitely suits me and probably the kind of people I gravitate to: bohemian, stylish, drunkards. Certainly the Commercial Tavern is now my drinking spot of choice in that part of London.

Minn x

New BLOG: The Retrometropolitan: food, booze, reviews.

Dear all, I have started a new blog for reviews of bars, restaurants and hotels. This is so that the lovely loves who pop in here to read about booze and food do not also have to wade through vintage rolls and shoes, Lord love em! The posts will be expanded versions of the reviews here. Please have a look and pass the word around!

The Retrometropolitan. Food, booze, reviews!

Thank the Lord I am not a copywriter....

Le Cassoulet, good French food.

Exterior of Le Cassoulet.

It must be admitted that Croydon, as a place, does not get a good press. Perhaps it is because of the feral school children and confused asylum seekers wandering around the Whitgift Centre. However how many of you realise it has a palace? Croydon is more of a demographic cape, it is where currents meet. Suburban money, Home Counties wealth, and middle England respectability clash with Croydon face lifts, jerk chicken and people with faces like shovels. A bit of that shovel faced character can be seen in its most famous child Kate Moss. But what of those other famous children of Croydon: John Ruskin, David Lean and Jacquelin Du Pre? I mention all this not because I am a Croydonite, but because the area may have hidden pleasures. To illustrate this fact I raise the subject of the restaurant Le Cassoulet located in South Croydon.

Interior of restaurant(lunchtime).

Le Cassoulet, named after the titular bean and gubbins stew is a small restaurant serving classic French dishes. Unpretentious dishes such as Moules Mariniere, Pate, Confit of Duck properly cooked and attractively presented without any of those mastercheffy flourishes (foams that look like spittle, scallops on scrapings and so forth). Every thing you order is what you expect, but much better. For the prices this is an extraordinarily good restaurant. Even at much higher prices it would be still be an excellent restaurant.

Interior of restaurant (night time).

One of the things I appreciated is its rejection of that particularly British affectation: the distressed, dainty battered french farmhouse style leavened generously with Seaside naffery. For a classic example see Sophie Dahl's kitchen in her current television series, more Notting Hill than Normandy. Like all good French restaurants Le Cassoulet is grown up. It's Frenchness resides in its banquettes, delicate flowery wall paper and wall mounted lamps. It is the kind of interior the Dean Street Townhouse is stylishly pastiching. The staff are largely French, and have that combination of professionalism and humour very faintly veined with a hint of superciliousness that is the mark of good gallic restaurant bods. The Hare ragout was off, as they were not 'eating the Easter bunny' which of course was originally the far tastier hare. They handled the neighbouring table, a group of people who could have walked straight out of Abigail's Party with friendly forbearance. The wine recommended by them was excellent, the cassoulet punctured with generous servings of duck was pronounced delicious and even the cheese course was well judged. Steaks were perfectly cooked, a citron tart was lovely. I was taken back by the price of the lunch menu; £16.50 for three courses. I asked to look at the evening menu, richer more sophisticated dishes, but still about £28.00 for three courses. This food was better than many expensive central London restaurants. I know many reading this will mutter about Sherpas and vaccinations but for those of you not living in Siberia (Norf and East London) Le Cassoulet does what a good restaurant should do: provide a well cooked meal and a gentle relaxing environment to eat it in. Now if they would only open a branch in Soho....

See the homepage for further information about the restaurant: www.lecassoulet.co.uk