Friends of LiB Christmas Catalogue (Part One)
Beer, Wine and Cocktails
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Over the course of the last eight months or so we’ve spoken to a lot of interesting and knowledgeable people about their favourite London places. Whether it’s for our ‘Where Do You Go?’ Q&A series or through conversations with playwrights, cabbies winemakers, and food writers, we’ve collected a lot of great tips for places to go, eat, drink and shop.
For this, the inaugural Friends of LiB Christmas Catalogue we’ve gone back over all those interviews, picked out the most useful tips and compiled them into a guide that features some of the best independent businesses London has to offer. For this issue we’re concentrating on booze. In the next issue we’ll have recommendations for Christmas grub (both sweet stuff and savoury) as well as a few tips on things to do if you’re in London over Christmas. That issue will be for subscribers only, so if you don’t want to miss it, subscribe now:
Cocktails & Spirits
Pre-made cocktails that you can pretend you mixed yourself
Reclaim These Streets co-founder Jamie Klingler mentioned Climpson’s Arch in her WDYG? interview back in May. As well as roasting excellent coffee and creating amazing restaurant residencies, Climpson and Sons also sell an After Hours range that includes their small batch, handmade ‘Midnight Oil’ coffee liqueur and ready-to-serve Espresso Martini. For Christmas they’ve added gift box versions that include cocktail shakers and Midnight Oil Truffles.
Pre-made cocktails that no one in their right mind would believe you mixed yourself
This one’s a bit of a cheat because it’s a recommendation from us, not someone we spoke to. In April, we wrote an issue celebrating the fact we could ‘dine outside’ again (remember those heady days?!) and mentioned that Old Street’s Gibson Bar had just launched an online store. Since then Gibson’s Boutique has helped us through a lockdown moments and we’ve already stocked upon a few things to to make Christmas day a little less stressful. The Buttered Old Fashioned is a particular favourite of ours, as is their Esperesso Martini (made with vanilla enhanced Mount gay rum, cocoa nibs-Amaro, cold brewed coffee, Okinawa syrup and bitter orange marmalade). But their festive mulled champagne (Moët Chandon champagne, oven toasted spices, milk oolong tea, and sharron fruit jam) also looks like a winner.
Booze bottled amongst the canals of Bow
The East London Liquor Company was recommended to us by the founders of the Little Places wesbite in our August 25 issue. As well as having an “unbelievably beautiful indoor and outdoor space” they also have a great online shop where you can pick up the whole range of East London spirits including the marvellous single malt (“tastes of stewed apples, allspice, honeysuckle, and even a few Szechuan peppers”) or their collaboration gin made with the Royal Botanic Gardens.
Wine
Wine from a railway arch in Battersea
Just last month we spoke to Sergio Verillo, the man behind Black Book wines over in Battersea. They make excellent pinot noir and chardonnay in a railway arch just off Cedars Road using grapes sourced from growers within hours of the city. If you want something to go with your cheese on Christmas Day then you could do worse than their Night Jar Pinot Noir (made with grapes from the Clayhill Vineyard in Essex), or you can cover all your wine bases in one go with their Lockdown Case (six bottles for £110).
Wine from a railway arch in Bermondsey
Jonathan Nunn is probably the most knowledgeable London ‘foody’ we’ve spoken to this year. His Vittles newsletter is one of our favourites (in fact you can gift Substack subscriptions now, so if you’re looking for something for that London food-lover in your life that might be a good option). When we asked Jonathan for his favourite London eateries one of his choices was the excellent 40 Maltby Street, which is situated at one end of a railway arch in Bermondsey. At the other end of that arch is their wine shop Gergovie Wines, and they have some brilliant ‘festive selections’ on their site right now (with quite a few around the not-ridiculous £20 mark). They also have a Christmas selection of six bottles (one fizz, two whites and three reds) for £130.
Christmas Cases from Clapham North
The other wine recommendation that Sergio Verillo gave us was D Vine Cellars on Voltaire Road, just off Clapham High Street. They have an online shop, which has a “cracking case of sparkling wines to toast with on Christmas morning” (three bottles for £53), or a Christmas Covered Sixer for £105. They’re also hosting a wine tasting with their friends at the Cycling Podcast tomorrow night (Tuesday 14th) so if you’re a fan of vino and cycling then tickets are £50.
Bubbles from London’s first commercial vineyard since the middle ages
One of the local vineyards that Black Book uses for their wines is Forty Hall Farm. They are a social enterprise run out of a 10 acre community vineyard up in Enfield, where they also produce their own organic English wines. One of those is the London Sparkling Brut (“believed to be London's first Sparkling Brut”), which is made in the traditional Champagne method, using only grapes from North London.
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Beer
Hops from Hackney (that comes with hot sauce)
A Hackney Wick favourite of the Little Places founders, Howling Hops brew “uncompromising, generously-hopped beers” at the UK’s first Tank Bar (i.e. the beer comes from large vats not bottles or cans, so it’s fresher and more sustainable). They also deliver nationwide from their online shop and right now they have a Juicy Dozen 12-pack which you can pick up for £42, or for £24 you can get the beer + coffee + hot sauce + glass gift pack that includes a coffee sour beer, a pack of the same coffee used in making that beer, and a “tomatillo-spiced Mexican relish style sauce” that will go well with any cold meats on Boxing Day.
Beer from Battersea (that comes with BBQ sauce)
Sergio from Black Books told us that “it takes a lot of good beer to make good wine” and recommended one of his Battersea neighbours to us: Mondo Brewery. If you’ve got a few people coming over for Christmas this year (or if you just really like beer) then Mondo sell five litre ‘mini kegs’ of all their core beers for £30. Choose from their IPA, lager, session IPA or New England Pale. They’re all excellent. They also sell a BBQ sauce made with their barrel-aged Imperial Stout, but it’s out of stock right now :(
Beer from a brewhouse on the banks of the Lea
When we asked the founders of Little Places where they went for a great time, their immediate answer was the Crate Brewery taproom and pizzeria on the canal-side in Hackney Wick. But even if you can’t get down there yourself, you can still enjoy Crate’s beer via their online shop. Their mixed case of 12 cans (which actually includes a couple of ciders) is £27, or their NEIPA four x 440ml pack is only £13 right now.
Ten percent beers from Tottenham
Another Sergio Verillo beer recommendation was Pressure Drop up in Tottenham. We’ve been to their tap room ourselves and it is a great place to be, especially when they have one of their street food partners serving up something tasty to go along with the beer (next week they have harlem2manila there with their excellent bao buns). If you want to bring a bit of Tottenham into your home for Christmas they have a good selection in their shop including a 15 can festive selection that’s £63 and includes two cans of It's My Party & I'll Cry If I Want TO 10% Maple, Coconut and Chocolate Imperial Granola Stout, a can of Cast Iron Billy 10.5% Imperial Brown Stout and a can of Good Chat 10% Coffee, Chocolate, Hazelnut & Vanilla Imperial Milk Stout.
News bits
On Sunday evening the awful news came through that police searching for Petra Srncova, the 32-year-old children's hospital worker who has been missing since the end of November, had found a body in Brunswick Park in Camberwell.
The man shot dead close to Kensington Palace over the weekend was a “suspected bank robber”. Officers had been called to reports of a man with a firearm entering a bank and bookmaker’s near Marloes Road. Fifteen minutes later a vehicle was stopped at the junction of Kensington Road and Palace Gate where “shots were fired and a man suffered gunshot wounds”.
At the end of last week an inquest jury found that the Met contributed to the deaths of serial killer Stephen Port's final three victims. Since then a friend of one of those victims has accused the force of being “institutionally homophobic” and the mayor has asked the HMICFRS to “review the standards of the Met’s investigations”.
The TfL funding issue has not been resolved, even though the deadline was Saturday. A statement on the TfL website says, “We continue to discuss our funding requirements with the Government, who have today indicated their intention to extend our funding support for TfL through until 17 December 2021.”
New Civil Engineer has spoken to TfL’s ‘head of tunnels’ (best job title ever?) who has confirmed that “the DLR extension, Bakerloo Line extension, the new Elephant & Castle ticket hall and capacity upgrades to Camden Town and Holborn have all been put on pause until the situation becomes clearer.”
If you’ve watched all three episodes of Peter Jacksons’ epic Beatles documentary, Get Back then you might be interested to know that Ray Dagg, the 19-year-old police officer who had the unenviable job of shutting down that legendary rooftop gig, has spoken about the experience for the first time. If you don’t have a Times subscription, then the New York Post has some excerpts.
The Guardian has interviewed 72-year-old retired chef, Yuk Luzn Man, the “hardest working man in Chinatown”.