July: Soho Lunches, Windrush Lager and a Winner in Wimbledon
A monthly newsletter about London beer and pubs, (mostly) written by journalist Will Hawkes
Liquid Lunch
On a sunny Tuesday lunchtime in late June, business at 10 Greek Street is brisk if not bank-busting. Groups of Soho types - well-dressed, 30-something, a touch on the loud side - are merrily deciding what to to order: Gloucester Old Spot Pork, Borlotti Beans & Sea Vegetables (£28), maybe, or Sea Bream, Fennel, Olives, Capers, Samphire (also £28)? The city hoots and hums outside.
Not many diners, as far as I can see, are drinking beer, with the exception of one table: in the middle of the slim, simply-decorated room sit Luke Wilson, owner of 10 Greek Street, and Nick Trower, founder of Biercraft, a company which specialises in distributing beer to restaurants. Along with Cameron Emirali, who also co-owns 10 Greek Street, they run Braybrooke, one of the UK’s finest lager producers, and serve its Pilsner (launched earlier this year) on draught at the restaurant.
Few understand the current state of beer in London restaurants, and the impact of Covid-19 and the cost of living crisis, better than these two. So how's it going? Not too badly, judging by the health of their two beer businesses. Braybrooke, based in Market Harborough, is in the process of doubling the size of its brewing equipment under head brewer Alexis Inglis Arkell; Biercraft, which supplies beer for about 350 accounts - of which around 200 are restaurants - recently took on a refrigerated storage unit in Old Oak Common, previously owned by wine company Jascots, part of a project to bring logistics and deliveries in-house.
If there are problems, they’re those faced by everyone in hospitality now. Everything is more expensive than it used to be, from raw ingredients to the diners’ final bill. Covid-19 has changed the pattern of a working week: lots of people on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, far fewer on Monday and Friday. And then there’s the Elizabeth Line, the impact of which is still emerging.
What is clear is that beer in restaurants has settled into a post-craft rut over the past half-decade, pre- and post-Covid. Restaurants, in the main, want just three beers: lager (the house option), pale ale and one more. The paler and crisper the better. Bottles are preferred, although 330ml cans work - but not 440ml, as Biercraft discovered when Pressure Drop moved to that format, and demand from restaurants plummeted.
Some breweries are more coveted than others, according to Trower, 45. The Kernel has become a modern London classic. There’s something about its approach - varying ABVs, hops, consistency of quality and flavour, a consistent, unfussy aesthetic - that appeals to restaurateurs. “Restaurants want to work with institutions like The Kernel,” says Wilson, since last year also a director of Biercraft.
Back in the early days of the craft-beer boom, some people got excited about the possibility of beer lists in restaurants, but it was never very likely. The majority of restaurants and customers are very happy with wine as the accompaniment to food, thanks very much. Wine is crucial to a restaurant’s bottom line, and customers enjoy the higher ABV and lower volume alongside food. Beer exists as an aperitif, in the main, although it does depend on cuisine.
One quirk of the trade is the way breweries tend to be represented by a number of distributors, unlike wine, where restaurateurs crave exclusivity, according to both Trower and Wilson, who met while working at Liberty Wines. “Rule one was that none of the wines we supplied could be available in any supermarket,” says Wilson, 41. “You’d get a call at 9pm on a Saturday night: I’ve found such-and-such in Waitrose, you’ve ruined my day!”
10 Greek Street may have one excellent beer on draught, but the laws of restaurant booze apply here as much as anywhere else. The restaurant’s income is 60/40 food/drink, Wilson says, and of that 40 percent, beer makes up just 5. That helps to put into context why restaurants don’t focus more on beer: even when it’s as good as Braybrooke Pilsner, most customers will still order wine.
If Wilson seems concerned about anything, it’s 10 Greek Street: “The last six to nine months, with costs going up, it’s been tough. Working from home is a big thing. If there are train strikes, or even just heavy rain, people don’t come in. I still think we’ve got a number of years before it all settles down.”
The Elizabeth Line is a mixed blessing, he says. Customers can get into town quicker, but back home much quicker too. “We used to have a sitting at 10.45pm, after the theatre, but now we don’t get anyone after 9.30pm. There’s a number of reasons for that - there are good restaurants everywhere now - but we’ve lost that sitting.”
It’s not all bad news. Compared to when 10 Greek Street opened - when Camden Hells was about the most exciting beer he could get his hands on - there’s much more good beer available to restaurants (largely thanks to Biercraft). Still, though, draught beer is unrealistic for most places, which are short on space for lines and who don’t serve enough beer for a Lindr machine, which can be wasteful.
The rise of natural wine, often bracketed with craft beer, hasn’t been the boon you might expect - “Those types of restaurants often go for Tsingtao or something like that,” says Trower - but there may be good news on the horizon. Bierschenke - which opened in Covent Garden at the end of June - has beer and food front and centre, and there’s another beer-focused food phenomenon on the rise. “I think gastropubs are coming back around again,” adds Trower. That’s something to ponder.
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Windrush Flavour
Given the Empire Windrush’s journey to Tilbury 75 years ago, it seems appropriate that a beer brewed to celebrate that key moment in modern British history has also crossed the Atlantic. Windrush, a lager brewed with smoked malt and spices used in Caribbean cooking - thyme, scotch bonnet and pimento seeds - is the creation of Robyn Gustard Weise, a Brixton-born, Brooklyn-raised brewer.
She says the beer came about after she was asked to brew a beer for Barrel & Flow, a Black arts and craft beer festival in Pittsburgh, by Wild East, the New York brewery she was working for last summer. “One of the bartenders at the brewery knew I was really into smoked lagers, and he shared a Schlenkerla Smoked Helles,” she says.
“It was really crisp and refreshing but not in-your-face smokey; I added some pepper to the beer and it tasted really good. And of course everything needs a name - it was coming up to Carnival season, and I thought it would be cool to nod to that culture, my culture.”
It arrived in London because Harlem Brewing Company founder Celeste Beatty, her mentor, put her in touch with Brixton Brewery, and they were happy to make it here. Gustard Weise, a regular visitor to the UK (she has family in South London), came over in June to launch the beer. It should be available until the end of August, including at Wild Card Brewery in Walthamstow, Supercute in Brixton, and The Horn of Plenty in Stepney Green.
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STOP PRESS!! LCBF July Special
There will be an extra London Beer City this month. I’ll be sending out an additional missive to celebrate the London Craft Beer Festival’s We Are Beer event, a city-wide craft beer celebration that takes place in the week of the festival at venues around the city. It’ll be a lot like the old London Beer City, so it made perfect sense to collaborate on an exclusive preview newsletter. You can expect to find that in your inboxes the week starting the 23rd of July.
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Desi Pub of the Month: The Scotsman, Southall
In his latest column, David Jesudason, author of Desi Pubs, zeroes in on a mind-broadening Naan in Southall
Since my book was released at the end of May it has inspired my neighbour to travel across London - east to west - to visit Southall a staggering six times. Her visits to the majority Desi enclave are heartwarming to me as it was always my intention to get more people travelling around the country and taking themselves outside of their comfort zone.
And she’s certainly being radical by visiting the Scotsman. As an attractive Bosnian woman who doesn’t drink but loves food she’s subverting the normal crowd who would visit the Southall pub - think Punjabi uncles at the bar with boozy tales to tell. I was worried that they would make comments about her appearance in both senses of the word, but the opposite has happened.
She’s worked her way through the menu, chatted to the locals and has since explored the wider area - eating paan leaves and shopping for mangoes. And, like her, once you’ve ordered the Scotsman’s jumbo naan you’d be coming back to Little India again and again.
Desi Pubs is out now.
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Open Season
A battle over The Trafalgar, a well-known cask-ale pub in south Wimbledon, appears to have been won by the good guys. Closed in 2021 amid rumours about conversion into flats, it went up for lease in January, attracting plenty of interest. A deal was struck in June for the pub to reopen under the aegis of former tenant Rodger Molyneaux (also of the Hope in Carshalton) and Oli Carter-Esdale, until recently manager of the King’s Arms in Bethnal Green.
Drinkers can expect much the same as before, according to Carter-Esdale, with a strong focus on cask ale, good keg and bottled beer - and the new leadership team are aiming to “save as much of the famous carpet as possible”.
“I’m hoping I can blend the best of what the pub used to offer with what I managed to leave behind at the King’s,” he adds. “[It’ll be] A sort of aesthetic ode to historic, Victorian features that offers a welcoming, inclusive safe haven and space for all, with excellent beer and atmosphere to match.” He’s hoping to open later this month, although it may be August.
It’s not the only opening of note lately. North-East London is on the move: Macintosh Ales, run by former Lyle’s front of house man Charlie Macintosh, has launched an ale house at its new home in Stoke Newington, to be open every weekend; and Mother Kelly’s is opening its blendery and taproom in Tottenham this month. Brave Sir Robin in Finsbury Park is also to reopen soon.
Husk Brewing has moved to Canning Town, meanwhile, while big names from the London hospitality world - Oisin Rogers, formerly of the Guinea Grill, and Charlie Carroll, founder of Flat Iron - have taken on The Devonshire in Soho (above). This is excellent news for anyone seeking a decent pint close to Piccadilly Circus.
In less good news, The Experiment, a collaboration between Pressure Drop and Verdant, in Hackney is closing. The last service is this Saturday.
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The Art of Brewing
Orbit has collaborated with Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh (above, with Orbit brewer Chris Matthewman) on a beer to celebrate the opening of his exhibition at the South London Gallery, ‘Lagos, Peckham, Repeat: Pilgrimage to the Lakes’. It’s a 6 percent golden ale, called ‘No Food For Lazy Man’, brewed with English hops alongside traditional Nigerian ingredients: Sugar Cane, Calabash Nutmeg, and Melegueta Pepper. The beer was fermented under Ogboh’s sound installation so that the beer is “vibrating to the sound of Lagos”.
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In Like Flint
Next week sees one of the UK’s most vaunted new breweries, Two Flints, arrive in East London for a tap takeover at Mother Kelly’s bar in Bethnal Green. The event, on 20 July, will include a meet-the-brewer with the Windsor outfit; beers will be available from noon.
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GBBF Incoming
The Great British Beer Festival, Britain’s biggest beer event, takes place in two weeks. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I appreciate the opportunity to try British ales that aren’t always available in London, plus the German and Czech lagers. There’s an interesting list of brewery bars this year: my recommendations are Fyne Ales, Thornbridge, Iron Pier and Oakham. GBBF runs from 1-5 August at Olympia in West London.
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Two Pubs, One City
Hermits Cave & Stormbird, Camberwell
A man is deciding what to drink at Stormbird. He has a Brompton bike, helmet, and veins bulging out of his forehead caused, I can only assume, by sustained physical effort. He peruses the keg fonts, has a short think, looks meaningfully at the barman. “What’s a nice, kinda gentle pale ale?” he asks.
It's a reasonable request, especially at 5pm on a slow Sunday in Camberwell, the sluggish heart of South London, soporific in the summer heat. Buses, of which there are many, crawl along Camberwell Church Street. Customers drag chairs out onto the pavement to bask like lizards. Friends stop and chat in the street, willing this Sunday afternoon to last. Monday need not happen. What’s going on north of the river? Who knows? Who cares?
Camberwell is one of my favourite places. My mum went to school here in the 1950s, marched in her Salvation Army uniform over the hill from brown-paint East Dulwich - still decades from gentrification - to Mary Datchelor, a girls’ grammar school in Camberwell Grove, closed in 1981. Her parents, my grandparents, attended and possibly met at William Booth college, which towers over Camberwell from its eerie on Denmark Hill.
They sold The War Cry in south London pubs, I fled to the toilet in one, 17 years’ ago, during my stag do. That took place at the 2006 Epsom Derby - I backed the winner and spent the proceeds on a slab of Foster’s Lager, a decision I regretted almost immediately - and then the Castle in Camberwell. One of my dimmer friends decided there should be a stripper. When she arrived, I went and hid in the men’s loos.
At that time Stormbird was a bar called Funky Munky, but its twin across the road, The Hermit’s Cave, was already a staple of Camberwell’s pub scene. Owned by the same family, that relationship - young and old, upstart and established, Stormbird and Hermit’s Cave - has always seemed to inform their respective characters. One is the older version of the other, brown bitter as compared to keg sour. But how does that relationship work now, when many (most?) craft-beer drinkers are the wrong side of 40?
Well (spoiler alert) I’m past 40 now. It’s time to find out.
When I enter, The Hermit’s Cave is not exactly bursting at the seams. There’s me and one small group, two women and a man, sitting on a table that’s half in the pub, half on the pavement. The vibe is somnolence. The only excitement is on the big screen, highlights of England’s just-completed victory in the third Ashes Test, Mark Wood bowling to discombobulated Australia batsmen.
Out of five or six pumps, one is dispensing cask ale, Oakham Citra (£4.90). It’s decent but lacking zip. In truth, zip is in seriously short supply all round - even the barman looks bored. I don’t mind a lack of zip, though, especially when there’s stuff to look at, and The Hermit’s Cave has plenty of that:
It says Nonce on one of the windows (lol). Brand name?
There’s an old-fangled Reliance geyser, a Victorian water heater, in one corner, looking a bit like it’s been fly-tipped
Above the bar there’s a feast of old junk, including an accordion
Beneath the TV is a very pretty fireplace with ceramic surround featuring white flowers
On said fireplace is an advert for ‘Crisp Artois’ - buy two pints of Stella, get a packet of crisps. Tempting.
As I leave a group of young people come in and order glasses of Beavertown.
Across the road, most of the tables are taken, inside and out. Stormbird is in the sun and The Hermit’s Cave isn’t, which may be a factor. Another is the beer, varied and good value, relatively speaking. I go for Track Sonoma (£4.20) which is nice but a bit soapy after the uncompromising hoppiness of the Oakham.
There’s music, very quiet music. I can’t really hear it. Nick Drake? It’s so subdued I can hear people ordering at the bar from my seat along the back wall. “Can I also get a half?” a woman asks, after her male accomplice. Noise filters in from the street. Buses, bicycles, the occasional shout. Nothing to get too worked up about.
The customer base ranges from young - 20s - to older than me. Craft beer has been around for a decade now, and the 30-somethings who loved it when it first emerged are in their 40s now. They’re still going to Stormbird - but maybe they go to The Hermit’s Cave when it’s cooler. Hard to tell on a day like today.
The man with the bicycle is presented with a half of Verdant’s Lightbulb, which seems to fulfil the brief. Good work by the barman. I finish my pint and wander up the road to the former Castle, now the Camberwell Arms, a well-regarded gastropub, and peer through the window. Food seems to be the order of the day, now, and wine. I doubt they get many strippers.
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Finally …
Here’s an interesting article from Boak and Bailey about Henekey’s, a London-based pub chain that thrived long before Wetherspoons.
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London Beer City is written by journalist Will Hawkes. If you’ve got a story or an observation, contact me on londonbeercity@gmail.com. If you like what you’ve read, please share it with your friends; if you’ve been forwarded this email and enjoyed it, you can sign up here. Unsubscribe here. Thanks for reading.