Dukes Brew & Que

If you can resist the urge to step into one of the always pleasant Vietnamese places that line Kingsland Road, there is a new bar and restaurant waiting for you on the street opposite Haggerston Rail station. Dukes Brew & Que is not in the most modern or desirable part of town, but makes up for this by placing some of London’s biggest trends front and centre – barbeque & craft beer. From outside it is dark blue and unassuming, with a few scattered tables outside for the smokers. It doesn’t change inside – it’s woody and rough, solid and basic, almost like eating in a large crate used in airplane shipping. This rustic slice of the US Midwest reflects the causal, homely nature of the food they are serving out of the hot and smoky open kitchen.

          They have given about 3 quarters of the room to the diners and only a narrow, stingy space for those wanting to down a few beers. This seems to be a little misguided, as on our visits there were more patrons at the bar than at tables, and the bar is something to be shouted about. Across a couple of visits it was stocked with some high end craft beer, from local breweries like Redemption to more famous names – Thornbridge & Brewdog from the UK, Flying Dog & Sierra Nevada from the US. Particularly good on our visit was Steelmaker from Thornbridge, a heavily hopped lager, and Snake Oil, a pale ale brewed in full view opposite the kitchen. The other beer from the onsite brewery (Beavertown) was adequate but uneventful, suggesting that we can expect very good things further down the line. The (roughly 50/50) mixture of keg and cask beers is good, and there are plenty of decent wines and spirits to keep everyone else happy. The bottle list is also full of great stuff – Kernel and Redchurch for some local colour, and a few of the much rarer American goodies for the more adventurous. Generous platefuls of crispy pork scratching’s were plonked in front of us as we drank, and the barman was quick to offer help in selecting what we wanted.

             This contrasts somewhat with a restaurant that is still trying to find itself (the website describes this on-going state as a soft opening – although usually in this circumstance prices would be significantly reduced) which is clearly apparent in the food.

            The menu is short and pleasingly simple – four or five sides, and a selection of the BBQ usual suspects to arrange them around – pulled pork, beef & pork ribs, chicken wings, steak, burgers. At around £10-£12 for the mains and £3-4 for the sides, you couldn’t classify it as cheap, but certainly affordable. The food arrived swiftly via good looking, pleasant staff, and two excellent sauces were placed in between us, with the menu insisting that good barbecue needs none, but they humbly offer them anyway.

            The side dishes were a mixed bag of quality. Macaroni cheese was generous and addictive, but was served lukewarm, and I have had better from amateur cooks. On the other hand the spinach and leeks were delicious, buttery and rich. Both of the crowd pleasers of BBQ side lore were a slight disappointment – the beans were overly sweet and felt both undercooked and under portioned, while the chips were gigantic wedges of potato which had good flavour but lacked the crispy/crunchy texture that contrasts so well with soft, yielding meat. Oddly, a few of the dishes were listed as pints or half pints, yet everything arrived in bowls, suggesting the ideas are ahead of the execution.  

          From the big plates; a great example of pulled pork was given a disservice by being served in two overly firm, bland buns as ‘sliders’ (they definitely needed the sauce). Not helping proceedings were token-gesture pickles and coleslaw looking tired and dull.   Pork ribs were bang on the money though – 3 huge piggy bits arrived looking like small bridges from a Homer Simpson dream sequence. There was epic amounts of meat, most of it having melded with its nearest piece of fat to create an exhibition of texture – crisp and charred, firm and chewy, soft and squidgy; some of the meat peeling clean off the bone, some clinging to its former home as though it knew the fate that awaited.

           There are too many good things going on here for this place not to be a success. One look at the brunch menu is enough to have me booking a return visit, and once the kitchen is into its stride I’m sure the kinks can be ironed out sufficiently so that the quality of the food matches the warmth of the atmosphere and the quality of the bar. It is a pleasant place to drink and eat, and with a few corrections could be a real gem.

Update: I have reviewed the full range of Beavertown beers here

Krispy Kreme Bacon Cheeseburger with Maple Syrup & Bacon Chips

A few years ago I saw someone eat a burger on TV, using a donut instead of a bun. I thought it was funny and fairly ridiculous, probably a normal reaction. The sugar/salty combination is a familiar one though – maple syrup and bacon pancakes, cheese and honey, pork and apple sauce. This is just 1 step further - albeit quite a big, calorie fuelled step. I debated the inappropriateness of this endeavour with a colleague, asserting that with a large dollop of Tommy K and a normal bun the sugar levels would be similar – we conceded an honourable draw. So I thought bugger it, why not, and gave it a go.

          For the burger, I bought mince from the butchers, some streaky bacon, plastic cheese, and a couple of Krispy Kreme original donuts. For the chips, I roasted the bacon in the oven tray, and then added some parboiled potatoes. Seasoning and then a liberal drizzling with the syrup and chopped up bacon pieces followed. I heavily seasoned the beef patties and fried them in a touch of the bacon fat, with a slice of cheese going on at the end. I took the meat out to rest, warmed the bacon back up and chucked in the halved donuts to soak up any meat juices remaining in the pan. Assemble, add a squirt of American mustard and dig in. Serve with mayonnaise and pickles.

          To accompany this I needed to match it with some equally silly things. I had a black IPA in the fridge, which as a style makes no sense and hence was ideal. A big chocolate stout is as indulgent and extravagant as the meal itself. And finally an American lager – this just made sense for some reason.
               To say the burger and chips were sweet would be a slight understatement. It was a gluttonous mess of fat, salt and sugar which left me quite giddy afterwards. The combination is almost there, but a denser, less sweet donut would have worked better (otherwise known as a bap). The chips were immense – some crisp, some soft, with the occasional hit of bacon and sticky caramel. The Budweiser worked pretty well – it acts as a dose of sanity and cleanliness in amongst the carnage of flavour, refreshing the palate without adding anything or contributing to the experience. The Magic 8 Ball from Magic Rock is a very decent beer, but found itself in the wrong place at the wrong time. The floral, fruity notes are lost against the food, leaving the huge bitterness clashing violently with the big flavours in the burger and overwhelming the chips. A total mess. The final beer worked magically, Brooklyn’s Black Chocolate Stout giving as good as it got. The massive alcohol and body stands up to everything thrown at it, with the initial savouriness leading to sweeter chocolate and liquorice elements which was a great partner for the burger but also with the chips. I felt slightly drained after this but it was thoroughly worth it.    
            This is a time when fatty breakfasts and turkey twizzler discoveries can make national news, as high calorie food edges towards receiving the sort of disdain that cigarettes and cheap alcohol have endured for a while now. This only serves to make it more alluring, more taboo, and therefore far more enjoyable to attempt meals like this. If my fiancé allowed smoking in the flat I would have lit up a fat cigar and wallowed in hedonistic disregard for my own health. It would have been fun. As it was I enjoyed the cooking, eating and drinking immensely. It was possibly the most fun meal I have ever prepared. I urge people to try it. Just, you know, eat a salad the next day or something.

Hells Yeah! - Camden Town Brewery

Last weekend Camden Town Brewery officially launched their new beer, USA Hells, and while they were at it, opened their brewery bar to the public for the first time. They made an effort, with some basic furniture both indoors and out, some cool oversized foam hands and Big Apple Hot Dogs dishing out the food. Not too much effort though – it still looks, smells and feels like a brewery with a bar attached, not the other way around, which is too often a recipe for below par beer. The beers on sale (around 10) were all on keg at £3.50 a pint, with bottles and mini-kegs for taking away.

          Sunny throughout, the afternoon started lively and then went to busy, crowded, rammed, and then finally petered out a full hour after the proposed closing time. This meant there were queues aplenty, but the fully branded-up staff  were quick to take care of that, and in these surroundings, queuing is somewhat of a unspoken pleasure – dreaming of your next pint of lager with sun on the face and grilled meat in the nostrils. Those who have visited Kernel or London Fields brewery on a Saturday will have experienced the same vibe – Spartan surroundings, tucked away down alleys or underneath arches, born in Brooklyn and raised in Shoreditch. Camden Town perhaps lends itself best to this; the modern, consistent and drinkable beers are familiar enough to attract new craft drinkers, but have the occasional fanatic-friendly elements, like unfiltered this and American hopped that. It meant the crowd was mixed, young, and had some cash to spend, with a great mixture of excited craft newbies and seen it all before experts. They mingled and relayed between the two bars, eagerly awaiting their brewery tour and wondering whether they had time for a hot dog. Some will have gone home after the 5pm closing time – most went on to a full Saturday night of drinking and bar hopping.

         The new beer is very good. The Hells is clean, citrusy, and peppery with cereal/grain sweetness leading to a crisp, dry finish. The big American hops in the new version give the aroma more floral, herby notes and a bigger, more rounded, juicy finish with a little added grassy bitterness. It is dangerously drinkable and rumours of a permanent place in the line-up for this are pleasing. The unfiltered version of the standard hells was also great – more body and a touch sweeter, creamier and longer on the finish. The only detour from these I bothered with (it was Hells day!) was to have a goodbye pint of one of my favourite beers from last year, the Gentleman’s Wit. The last keg of this gentle, moreish, beery bucks fizz was not quite as good as I last had it, but still lovely. 

                I am greedy with breweries I like though, always wanting them to try and do everything, and Camden Town are no different. I would like to see some bigger beers in the future, a big US style IPA, something with the word imperial in it, and maybe some barrel-aged brutes. That’s just me though. As a recent Camden resident of 3 years I am both pleased that this has arrived and also annoyed that it happened so soon after I left. I’m sure it will become a destination drinking spot, and along with Brewdog and the Euston Tap down the road will form a little craft keg corner of North London. By the looks of Saturday, they will have plenty of loyal customers to fund the next few years, which means more great beer for us locals, but we might have to start sharing it with a bigger and bigger audience.

I was too busy drinking to take photos, so all images are shamelessly stolen from here https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.309982045731355.72722.140244476038447&type=3

The Session #61 - Local beer

2004. Ramsgate. Sitting in the brewery bar, across from huge shiny tanks of something. I can see people putting green stuff in the top. I can smell something biscuity and sweet. And I can see the fruits of their labour, in the form of 4 or 5 pump clips on the bar. I can drink my pint of Gadds No. 3 knowing it was created just yards from my seat, and just a 5 minute walk from my school. That is when I started getting in to beer, and that is what local beer means to me.
                I still hold Gadd’s beer in very high regard, and drink it whenever I can, although as I no longer live there I do not think of it as my local brewery. In beautiful North London, Camden Town now hold that position. I drink their beers all the time, not just because they are readily available and delicious, but because I have seen the brewery, met people there, and occasionally wear the t-shirt.  
        Hops, malt and various other ingredients can be sourced from all over the world, so there is often no physical reflection of the locality in beer. It may be fresher and more likely to be kept well (easier to keep track of quality with pubs down the road) but other than that is local beer a myth? I don’t think so. Millions of people cheer on their football or rugby team every week, despite the fact that the players, managers and owners will rarely be from the local area. The emotional connection still exists.   
           For me, I feel a sense of ownership over my local brewery. I want it to succeed, to be good, to grow. But its more than that - they owe me that success. I spend more hard earned money on my local beer than any other, and I tell friends and family they should drink it when they visit. So I feel invested, committed - I can’t go moving house because the local beer isn’t good enough, so don’t let me down. That’s the difference for me – if I buy an American beer and it’s great, I enjoy it in the moment. If its rubbish, I shrug and move on. I’m either pleased or annoyed. But only my local brewery is important enough to make me proud or disappointed. Anyone who insults London beer will get scorn, derision and maybe a pie thrown at them. Given the availability of quality beer online from all over the place, this makes little sense. But that’s how it is. My beer is better than your beer…

Pitt Cue Co.

Another no bookings, queue out the door, reasonably priced (for London) restaurant. Go on a Saturday and it is hard to believe a recession ever occurred, so bustling and busy is the small interior. None of this is foot traffic – the place is easy to miss (we did) and unassuming, tucked away on a side road halfway down Carnaby Street. Everyone here has heard about it on a blog, or on twitter, or actually visited the pop-up parent, a small van under Hungerford Bridge.  Upstairs in the bar every surface that it is possible to squeeze a tray onto has food on it, and once downstairs it is easy to see why – little more than a closet greets you down the narrow staircase, which seats about 25, and clearly some are not prepared to wait.
        The bar is small but functional, with friendly and effective staff mixing bourbon centric cocktails with the occasional meaty flair (bacon infused vodka in the bloody Marys) and opening beers from the amusing list – Pabst Blue Ribbon and Moosehead alongside Kernel pale ales and a house lager. The lager is dull and chalky (and oddly served only in half’s) the Kernels were rich and fruity and a much better match with barbecue.

         The list of options is basic, short, and irresistible. Nightmarishly, they ran out of my desired meats, the pork ribs and the brisket. In most places this would have me in a dark mood for the duration but once the food arrived I became forgiving very quickly. In a place where it seems as if they have given you a table, chair and cutlery because of some archaic EU regulation and not because they want to, the camping-holiday tin trays and rustic food within them make perfect sense. Piles of charred, long cooked meat arrive with dainty sides of pickles and bread to emphasise their presence. Beef ribs are glorious, colossal chunks of sticky, juicy, deep red flesh and charred bone, rich in flavour and the right balance between chewy and melting. Pulled pork is very good – moist and soft, with singed, dry gnarly bits to get you excited. Onglet is cooked to rare, and has all the flavour that a proper cut of steak should. Meat this good, at £9 for a tray with sides included, is a mighty bargain - if you speak to your dining companion before finishing, you should be ashamed - that is not a good use of your time when important things need to be eaten. In fact the only disappointment was when the meat was not given centre stage. Baked beans with an indistinct meat in amongst the sauce were fine but unmemorable, and the burnt end mash just didn’t work – the overly sauced chunks blended with the mash to give an unsatisfactory soup of sweet, gloopy potato.

       The wait for a table is annoying (some apparently refer to it as Pitt Queue) but at least here, unlike some places, there is a reasonably comfortable place to get drunk while you hang around. Less than £20 a head for drinks and a memorable lunch – that’s pretty good going anywhere, but a few yards from Oxford Circus it is much appreciated. Expect the queues to last and go anyway, it’s worth it.                      

Burger Crawl - Spuntino & Mishkin's

Saturday evening, me and the missus have not had a burger in a while. We could make our own, but we are lazy. We go into central London for a burger crawl.

        Spuntino, Soho. Its busy, cool, loud, dark. And fun. A queue forms behind us after we are seated – we judge them. They are have-nots, we are haves. We are better, if only for a moment. The bar is sleek and appealing. There are jugs of water, and lots of bourbon. 4 sliders from the short, stylish menu, with fries on the side and some fried chicken. The food is great – crispy chicken, salty fries, good burgers. I want to order more things but no, this is a burger crawl. Burger 1 is smoked mackerel. It’s decent but too firm, and underwhelming 6/10. Burger 2 is pulled pork. It’s very good, rich, chewy and meaty 7.5/10. Burger 3 is spiced lamb and cucumber relish. It is well seasoned and soft 7/10. Burger 4 is beef and bone marrow. Yum 8/10. Everything is seasoned heavily and served quickly. The brown paper menus are ruined with oil and mustard. I like it here. My gin and tonic is better than any of the beers on offer, but has a cucumber in it. Bastards. We leave before anyone notices we aren’t wearing skinny jeans and don’t know who Jessie J is.

       Mishkins is owned by the same people. We go there to finish our ‘crawl’. It claims to be a Jewish deli, so we order one of several non-kosher items on the menu. Burger 5 is lamb and pistachio. It is under-seasoned and does not taste of pistachios 5/10. Burgers 6 & 7 are steamed patties with onion and cheese. They are delicious, soft and sweet 8.5/10. Onion rings are crisp and light, the fries lack texture and are dull. The cocktails are expensive and all contain gin. My missus has gin. They put cucumber in it. Bastards.

The place is odd, I’m not sure I get it. The gin list has Tesco Value as an option. This is funny. The beer list is canned Carlsberg, at £3.50. This is abhorrent. People involved in this decision should be made to wear signs with rude words on. The staff is friendly and prices are reasonable. We sat, ordered, ate and drank at the bar and were charged 12.5% service. Hmm.

    Seven burgers and gin on the breath. We stumble to a Tesco and buy easter eggs for desert. I wait for the missus to fall asleep and watch highlights of the FA cup. I love Saturdays.

Burgers

More Burgers

Second Chances

With the wealth of new breweries and beer bars in London it is easy to dismiss those which do not impress you right from the off. When faced with a bar full of choices, in excess of £3 a pint, it is perfectly understandable to classify the beers into good and bad, boring and exciting, and order accordingly. There is simply not enough time or money to continually revisit breweries and beers which failed to impress you the first time. This makes it pretty tough for new breweries, as first impressions are very important, and if they are going to make mistakes it is likely to be early on.

         After trying a few beers form Redchurch brewery, I had largely written them off. The beers were not good, and at £2.50 odd a bottle I could just not envisage buying them again with so many others on offer. But walking home on a Friday evening to be spent alone eating pizza, I thought I would give them a second chance, not least because they had released a new addition to the range, their 7.5% Great Eastern IPA.

First up was their Shoreditch Blonde, a 4.5% pale ale. I like the way their bottles look – simple, colourful, to the point, with an East London theme to let you know what they are all about. The beer was decent, a pleasing pale yellow and a thin white head, aromas of lemon and sweet bread which were reminiscent of a wit. Very gentle, light flavours of citrus and kiwi, with a crisp, metallic, bitter finish. Not amazing, but drinkable and pretty.

         The Great Eastern IPA is what second chances are made for. It looks great – rich, orangey brown, like autumnal leaves, with a big, beautiful thick head which stays right to the end of the beer. It smells fantastic – pick and mix sweets, candy sugar, caramel, toffee, and vaguely tropical. It is stunningly conditioned, lively and fresh but also smooth and full bodied. The flavour is dominated by big, tropical fruit, super juicy orange and grapefruit, almost sticky, balanced by the bitterness which is not huge and rasping, but assertive and constant. Dangerously sessionable, this was so easy to drink, so rewarding, so delicious. It’s early days, but this was my favourite bottled beer this year. I’m glad I gave Redchurch a second chance – are there any beers/breweries which you didn’t initially like and then changed your mind?