Penny Blood's Black Book - My Independent Guide to London » North

Belle Epoque, Trangallan & Newington Green

Penny Blood — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 18:22:54 +0000

Belle Epoque is an authentic french patisserie selling the most exquisite little french cakes. It’s also a great spot for breakfast if you’re after something light that will prepare you for the day, such as lightly toasted french bread with real President butter and my favourite Bonne Maman raspberry jam. They also have delicious pastries and sell classic french groceries in delectable tins and jars. There is ample seating and although bustling with people coming and going for their coffee and little pick me up, still retains a peaceful atmosphere.

www.belleepoque.co.uk

Belle Epoque, 37 Newington Green, London N16 9PR
020 7249 2222
Tuesday – Friday 8am – 6pm Saturday 9am – 6pm, Sunday 9am – 5pm, Monday Closed

Trangallan is a gorgeous looking tapas restaurant, it’s not cheap but decorated so beautifully I’d like to live there. They also have live music and show old movies.

www.trangallan.com

Trangallan, 61 Newington Green, London, N16 9PX
0207 359 4988 (check website for further details)
Tuesday – Saturday 6.30pm – 10.30pm (Drinks until 11.30pm) Sunday 12.30pm – 16.30pm
Tranga’s basement events: Wednesdays and Thursdays 8pm

Newington Green is a great little hub with a couple of good restaurants, cafes and shops including;

The Peanut Vendor is a great little antiques shop selling quirky mismatched pieces from no doubt all over the place, the sort of stuff that you can feel you have owned for years as it’s well used but still going strong and has lots of character, the antithesis to everything Ikea. Another place I love that sells similar stuff is Rospo on Hackney Road.

The Peanut Vendor, 133 Newington Green Road, London, N1 4RA
020 7226 5727
Tuesday -Thursday 10am-7pm, Friday-Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 12pm-6pm, Monday Closed

www.thepeanutvendor.co.uk/about.htm

Trattoria Sapori is a nice local Pizzeria serving up the best Italian comfort food, when in doubt just get pizza.

Trattoria Sapori, 44-45 Newington Green, London, N16 9HQ
0207 704 0744 / 0207 354 8026
Monday-Friday 9am-11pm, Saturday-Sunday 8.30am-10.30pm

www.trattoriasapori.co.uk

Push is a great independent bicycle shop selling all kinds of lovely things for people who love their bike.

Push, 35c Newington Green, London, N16 9PR
020 7249 1351
Monday – Friday 8am – 6pm, Saturday 9am – 5.30pm, Closed Sunday

www. pushcycles.myshopify.com

No related posts.

Lemon Monkey

Penny Blood — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:25:02 +0000

Lemon Monkey is a cafe/deli stocking high end food and good wine most of which is Italian, fairtrade or organic, they sell the kind of stuff that comes in really great packaging where you can buy a box of crackers and pass it off as a present as the box will have some kind of renaissance painting on it. The best thing about Lemon Monkey though apart from the big cups of coffee and delicious deli food is that it has a separate little room up some stairs at the back with big windows and comfortable chairs where you can while away the afternoon reading the newspaper in relative seclusion. It would be easy to miss Lemon Monkey as it’s doesn’t look like much from the outside and even once you step through the door you wouldn’t know about the little room at the back unless you ventured right in, it just makes me worry how many other great places I might be missing.

Lemon Monkey, 188 Stoke Newington High Street, London, N16 7JD
0207 241 4454
Monday – Wednesday 9am-6pm Thursday – Saturday 9am-9pm Sunday 10am-6pm

No related posts.

Cafe Vintage, Mountgrove Road

Penny Blood — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 16:50:38 +0000

So today I went for a ride around Stamford Hill looking for Jewish bakeries (it’s a Jewish area). I love to ride my bike and I love Jewish bakeries. I was totally unsuccessful however, there don’t seem to be any really authentic ones or at least I haven’t found any apart from perhaps Sharon’s. I informed my friend Rafael (who is Jewish) of this and he was shocked as apparently there are lots, he’s going to take me on a tour of them so I will get back to you on that. Stamford Hill is a liability for me too as there is a total lack of signage and I tend to get really distracted staring at Orthodox Jewish people, whenever I go by on the bus I like to count them and guess which of the women are wearing wigs. One good thing though is I came across a nice little street called Mountgrove Road. There is a really nice tea room, Cafe Vintage, a good vintage shop, a bike shop and a shop dedicated to selling Sylvanian Families, these weird little toys that were really popular when I was little, I have no idea what the true purpose of this shop is but then why question it?

www.cafevintage.co.uk

Cafe Vintage, 88 Mountgrove Road, London, N5 2LT
Tuesday- Friday 8.30am-5.30pm Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 10am-4pm

Enterprise

Penny Blood — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:10:31 +0000

The Enterprise is something of a Camden institution. I came here quite a bit in my art college days, that’s the type it attracts. The Enterprise has a spacious downstairs with an upstairs offering an intimate gig venue for aspiring bands and musicians. I’ve seen many bands here that now either work for the council or for an accountants, I guess that’s what happens. It’s also opposite the Roundhouse and therefore a very popular after venue for whatever bands or acts have been playing that night. Frequented by both young student types, who are all in bands or friends with people in bands and old regulars who have been coming here since it opened and must have taken a look at the hordes of skinny jeans and bizarre outfits and decided to carry on drinking there anyway. Some will hate the Enterprise and some will love it but I will say this, avoid coming here at night, stick to daytime as it gets impossibly hot and sweaty. During the day however it’s just an old school Indie boozer with a makeover. It’s comfortable and cosy with a wall to ceiling bookcase, pictures of literary notables on the walls, sofa’s and random lamps spotted about, really it’s just a great place to read the papers.

http://www.camdenenterprise.com

The Enterprise, 2 Haverstock Hill, London, NW3 2BL
020 7485 2659
Mon-Thu 11am-11pm; Fri 11am-1am; Sat 12pm-1am; Sun 12pm-11pm Friday & Sat: 11am – 1am

No related posts.

Episode

Penny Blood — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 13:14:47 +0000

Episode is one of the few remaining vintage shops in Camden, which not so long ago used to be little but vintage shops and grungy bars. These days however Camden seems to be going up in flames to make room for lots of glossy new businesses which you would think would kill off the hippies but fortunately not, Camden wouldn’t be Camden without Spanish hippies with dreadlocks and platform trainers . The first thing I bought in Episode was a cute french hat which I never wore because I don’t suit hats, they make me appear shorter than I already am and I don’t want to look like a Pete Doherty groupie, it doesn’t seem to stop me buying them though. Episode is ridiculously well organised by subject matter and colour yet still manages to retain individuality and isn’t too overrun by the hordes of foreign tourists that seem to think Camden is the only place to go when they visit London.

http://www.episode.eu/index.jsp?USMID=26

Episode, 26 Chalk Farm Road, London NW1 8AG
020 748 599 27
Monday – Sunday 11am – 7pm

Inspiral

The Elk in the Woods

Penny Blood — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 10:36:13 +0000

The Elk in the Woods has to be mentioned because it’s a beauty. Located on a great little backstreet behind Upper Street, home to lots of boutiques, cafes and antique shops, it’s a great place to come for any meal or just a drink although breakfast is my favourite, how can you beat pancakes with baked cinnamon pears, goats cheese yogurt and maple syrup? The pretty green tiling, wooden furniture, open fireplace, ornate leather arm chairs and stag antlers give it a convincing ski lodge appeal and is what make this bar come cafe come restaurant quite special. The food is good and I love the way they don’t over crowd the place with too much furniture when they easily could to cram in more customers, that’s classy I’d say.

http://www.the-elk-in-the-woods.co.uk

The Elk in the Woods, 37-39 Camden Passage, London N1 8EA
020 7226 3535
Monday-Friday 8:30am-10:30pm; Saturday 10:30am-10:30pm; Sunday 10:30am-9:30pm

No related posts.

Howie and Bell

Penny Blood — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 11:31:46 +0000

You can truly find the best shops in the most random places and Howie and Bell is one. I’m not quite sure whether to put it in Antique Shops or Vintage clothes as it has probably the best and most nicely edited selection of pieces I’ve yet to see but then again it has even more of the other stuff, things like obscure old paintings, lampshades and chairs. This kind of activity inevitably leads me to spending money on things I never knew I wanted before I left the house. As I pick my way through a rail of clothes, not really looking as I’m paying more attention to the owner winding up her parents over the matter of light fixtures, I come across a beautiful cream silk double breasted shirt which hangs just perfectly off the shoulders. It’s not cheap although very fairly priced, prompting me to repeatedly chant my mantra, “A respectable appearance makes people more interested in your soul” a phrase I love to say, yet apparently don’t adhere to, wearing a pair of worn out moccasins and top shop jeans, but in a ‘I have no clean clothes’ and not in a ‘backstage at Coachella kind of way’.

http://www.howieandbelle.com

Howie and Bell, 52 Chamberlayne Road, Kensal Rise, NW10 3JH
0208 964 4553 / 07801 816 389

No related posts.

African Kitchen

Penny Blood — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 13:01:23 +0000

A tiny little place but with just wonderful food. It’s cliched to say, I know, but it’s like eating in someone’s kitchen, in a good way though, what I’m saying is that the food has been cooked with love. There is a plentiful selection of African masks and trinkets convincing arranged to help you forget you’re on a back street in Euston not a sunny beach in West Africa. It’s unusual food unless you’re used to African cuisine but so tasty and fulfilling. There’s spicy stews and great vegetarian choices too, the service is intimate and friendly and it’s cheap as chips, you just can’t fault this place.

African Kitchen, 102 Drummond Street, London, NW1 2HN
020 7383 0918
Monday Closed, Tuesday – Sunday 12:00-15:00 & 17:45-22:15

The Happy Kitchen, e5 Bake House, Arch 389 Furniture

St. John’s Tavern

Penny Blood — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 11:48:25 +0000

St. John way surpasses any Gastropub I have been to so far. It looks gorgeous and the food is delectable. The cavernous dining room is romantically lit with a huge fireplace, grand chandeliers and a charming collection of peculiar portraits adorning the back wall, creating quite a resplendent effect. The menu is extensive and the portions generous, I ordered mushroom soup thinking this was probably a fairly uneventful choice, but OMG was it great. It consisted of a light broth with whole delicious mushrooms of several varieties, none of this pureed crap that we’re used to. For desert I suggested to my friend we share a desert, she suggested we share two (her way of saying no, I want my own), we opted for the apple crumble with quince and walnut with amaretto and apricot ice cream and the mixed berry pavlova. Now I couldn’t really care a less about pavlova usually, but when you say “Have you been to the St. John in Archway?” and the reply comes “Oh yes, have you had the Pavlova”, it makes you want to try it and damn was it worth it. Without a doubt my new favourite spot in North London.

http://www.stjohnstavern.com/

St. John Tavern , 91 Junction Road, Archway, London, N19 5QU
020 7272 1587
Monday – Thursday 5pm-11pm; Friday – Saturday 12pm-11pm; Sunday 12pm-10:30pm

The Havelock Tavern

Spiazzo Italian Foodhall

Penny Blood — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 10:45:30 +0000

My favourite place in Los Angeles is a Jewish restaurant called Canters. It’s a staple in old Hollywood, full of screenwriters in big white trainers and khaki shorts writing C-list scripts about zombies (there’s a huge market for zombie films in LA). It’s bright and full of booths and the staff are older than most of the buildings.

The Italian Foodhall isn’t quite Canters but in terms of appearance it’s the closest I’ve found. Italian rather than Jewish, the deli has shelves stacked high with all that lovely Italian confectionery in amazing packaging, biscotti, amoretti biscuits, dark chocolate, marzipan sweets etc… The restaurant has high-backed red leather booths providing ample privacy and space, something you just don’t find in London since real estate prices force proprietors to pack in the customers. The food is that kind of home-cooked variety you see on American sitcoms and adverts, bruschetta piled high and bowls of olives and buttery ciabatta. The staff look Italian but that’s about it, they’re all probably from Southgate.

Spiazzo Italian Foodhall, 26 The Broadway, Crouch End, London, N8 9DE
020 83476065‎

http://www.spiazzo.co.uk

No related posts.