Penny Blood's Black Book » Bars

Favela Chic

Penny Blood — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:44:19 +0000

There is nothing I love more than taking a Third World theme and throwing a shit load of money at it thereby creating the ideal place for posh kids to hold their birthday parties all the while discussing their current holier-than-thou missions with the red cross, UN or whatever. The theme is in the title and I can surely say it summarises the place entirely apart from the fact that it is absolutely nothing like a favela or anywhere else in Brazil for that matter. However salsa music, disco balls, furniture that looks like it was washed up on a beach, flea market lamps, kitsch paintings and wallpaper, graffitied bathrooms, staff dressed head to toe in American apparel and imported Japanese trainers, cocktails and delicious Brazilian inspired food with exterior walls covered in carpet is good enough for me.

http://www.favelachic.com/london/

91-93 Great Eastern Street, London EC2A3HZ
020 7613 4228
Tuesday – Thursday 6pm-10pm Friday – Saturday 6pm-11.30pm

Hackney Pearl

Penny Blood — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 07:54:57 +0000

Hackney Wick is clearly on the up and the Hackney Pearl is definitely a symbol of that. Oh don’t worry the area still looks like a deserted wasteland only fit for amateur fashion shoots, but salvaged Formica tables, school chairs and copies of the observer are a slap across the face reminder of where we’re at now over in the Wick. For quite a while people seemed reluctant to open any kind of business as the area was rife with gypsies who’d been kicked out of (sorry re-housed), Stratford. However so far so good as the Hackney Pearl looks to be attracting all the RIGHT KINDS of people. The staff here look like extras from (all and any) music video but are really friendly all the same. The food here is great and the carrot cake is off-the-scale delicious. It’s the kind of place where they cook muffins there and then and leave them on the counter as if your mum just made them, awww sweet, that just tickles me. The spacious interior is styled so perfectly it rivals any established café in London. I’m so proud of it being in my very own Hackney Wick.

http://thehackneypearl.com/

Hackney Pearl, 11 Prince Edward Road, Hackney Wick, London, E9 5LX
0208 510 3605
Tuesday – Saturday: 10am until 11pm Sunday: 10am until 6pm

Miro’s

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:15:54 +0000

In an area where a new health food shop or over priced store selling baby clothes pops up every 10 minutes, I initially didn’t give Samson Miro a look in as it was always empty with only a couple of people sitting at a long wooden table who would stare at you when you’d peer in the window. It turned out to be a little wine bar that does tapas lunch and dinner and brunch at the weekend. Now I come all the time, mainly for the coffee but the food is good too and I love the black shelves of wine bottles and eclectic retro furniture. It’s good value for money with a nice quiet atmosphere, only drawback is one of the girls who works here has such an annoying voice it makes my ears bleed.

http://www.samsonmiro.com/

75 Chamberlayne Road, London NW10 3ND
020 8962 0275
Monday – Sunday 11am-11pm

Le Grenier

Trailer Happiness

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:14:59 +0000

I don’t go out to bars all that much, I usually only get as far as dinner then decide I’m done socialising and head home. Trailer Happiness isn’t somewhere I come often but if I was to recommend a good bar (which I am) then this would be it. Think South Pacific tiki hut mixed with 70’s kitsch. The palm tree and sunset décor are bright and colourful against dark walls and the odd Tretchikoff (South American master of the kitsch genre) painting on the wall. They serve great cocktails and cater to the Notting Hill media crowd with the odd boho celebrity thrown in. The music is usually cool 70’s R’n'B and hip hop not anything like the usual cheesy crap associated with the 70’s music scene. I’d read that it’s a really friendly place where everyone talks to everyone. Fortunately I didn’t find this to be so, as usually the people who say these things are the people doing all the talking and the people I try to avoid.

http://www.trailerhappiness.com/about/

177 Portobello Road, London W11 2DY
020 7727 2700
Tuesday – Friday 5pm-late Saturday 7pm-late Sunday 6pm-10.30pm

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Positively 4th Street

Penny Blood — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:12:44 +0000

Half speakeasy half colonial clubhouse, this little art deco bar takes you back to 1930’s New York during the prohibition. It also reeks of British colonialism with leaf-shaped fans attached to the ceiling. The intimate atmosphere, flickering tea lights, subtle seediness and decadence remind me a bit of the kind of place you would find on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. I’ll warn you though the patrons take themselves very seriously so be prepared to look the part and that means dress up. A full blown flapper costume wouldn’t be too much. The men go all out usually with 1930’s suits and hats and there is usually a fully adorned burlesque stripper or two around. Think back to Howard Hughes, Errol Flynn, Ava Gardner at the Coconut Grove and you’ll get the idea (on a small scale, sort of – sorry that was blowing it up a bit). Strangely, they serve Japanese food and sushi, and the cocktails are good.

http://www.positively4thstreet.co.uk/

119 Hampstead Road, London NW1 3EE 020 7388 5380 Monday -Thursday 5pm-11pm Friday 5pm-1am Saturday 7pm-1am Food served: Monday – Friday 5pm-9.30pm

Shoreditch Electricity Rooms

Penny Blood — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:05:24 +0000

The way things are going these days, no trendy bar or café will be complete without the odd piece of taxidermy it seems. The venue is large and quite pretentious which attracts a local crowd. A bit like an old fashioned English pub but with 70’s-style hippie-chic wallpaper. “ ….it’s popular with an uber trendy twenty to thirty something crowd who come in their hoards to drink, schmooze and stand around looking like they’ve just stepped out of an indie-styled video.” I stole that from someone else but it was too righteous a description to bother re-phrasing as my own and anyway originality is nothing without judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed from one another. Voltaire said that. Oh and Polly Morgan used to be the manager here.

39a Hoxton Square, Shoreditch, N1 6NN
020 7739 3939
Monday – Friday 12pm-12am Saturday – Sunday 12pm-1am

Commercial Tavern

Penny Blood — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:43:37 +0000

Just up the road from the Ten Bells, the Commercial Tavern is where I come when the Ten Bells is too busy. I’m on another bad date where I keep having to buy my own drinks and the guy keeps talking about his ex-girlfriend who is a model, always good to hear. Commercial Tavern is kitsch as hell but works all the same as they’ve gone all the way with it. There is no shortage of chandeliers and flocked wallpaper. It’s a cross between a pub and a bar or rather they have turned a pub into a bar by covering the walls with ridiculous wallpaper so they can charge more for drinks. It’s in Shoreditch therefore naturally full of media types but nowhere is perfect.

142 Commercial Street, Shoreditch, London, E1 6NU
020 7247 1888
Monday – Friday 5pm-11pm Saturday – Sunday 12pm-11pm
Food served Monday – Friday 12pm-9.30pm Saturday 12pm-8.30pm Sunday 12pm-5pm