Possible new venues

[jdaw1]

This thread is to hold discussion and notes about restaurants (and the like) that might be a suitable venue for a port tastings, whether in London, in New York, or elsewhere. This is to include simple notes of places worthy of some further investigation, as well as more detailed discussion of places about which more is known.

[jdaw1]

Bloomsbury pub and restaurant, The Lady Ottoline, formerly a Charrington pub, on the intersection of John Street and Northington Street, near Theobald’s Road, WC1N 2JF. In the pub excellent ale (ELB’s Nightwatchman) was served by a very competent and intelligent barman; the restaurant upstairs has a private room, seemingly little-used, which looked good. Generally excellent aesthetics. Usual corkage is £4 per bottle; and the wine list has Fonseca Quinta do Panascal 2005 at £40–ε (“Concentrated & lucious black fruits with velvety tannins & a long smooth finish”) as well as Barros LBV 2003 at most of £32. The one known problem is the weak lighting in the private room. Apparently The Lady Ottoline is always busy late in the week, but almost empty on Monday.

Our dining room can seat up to 45 guests and is available for private hire. Our private dining room can seat between 10 and 15 guests and is available with a banqueting menu.

For tables of 8 or more or to enquire about private hire, please call 020 7831 0008

I will return to eat, tout seul, and to enquire about glasses. A further report will follow.

[DRT]

This sounds promising, particularly the "Generally excellent aesthetics".

The location might be unwelcome by those who have already commented the High Holborn is inconvenient as this seems to be even further away from the tube lines preferred by some.

Worth a try, and an excellent idea for a thread.

[g-man]

Running list of places in NY:

Square MEal:
http://www.squaremealnyc.com/
accomodates only 6
North Square: Private room, pre fix 100$/person all included

Harry's:
harrysnyc.com/
125-150$/per son private room

Uncle jacks'S Westside
440 Ninth Avenue
New York, NY 10001
212.244.0005
: 125$ / personal all included private room

Afkhan kebab house
764 9th Ave New York, 10019
(212) 307-1612:
Ala carte, no corkage, no nonsense, no glassware but BYOB.
Small tables

Sarabeth's West
http://www.sarabethswest.com:
Can get crowded, long tables, friendly.

Hillstones
Hillstone.com
Can get very very crowded during busy times, will push the tables
but when free nice booths, free corkage, ~50$/person

[jdaw1]

The location might be unwelcome by those who have already commented the High Holborn is inconvenient as this seems to be even further away from the tube lines preferred by some.

The Lady Ottoline has a good location for those going to Kings Cross, or otherwise needing the Piccadilly or Central lines. Probably less good for Wokingham.

[DRT]

The location might be unwelcome by those who have already commented the High Holborn is inconvenient as this seems to be even further away from the tube lines preferred by some.

The Lady Ottoline has a good location for those going to Kings Cross, or otherwise needing the Piccadilly or Central lines. Probably less good for Wokingham.

Also an extra 10-15 minutes walk (≈1 pub stop) for those who tend to stay near Westminster/Victoria.

[AHB]

Jonathan, manager of the Bung Hole, said that he is to become manager of Grapeshots, and that he will try to persuade us to hold tastings there.

Oh dear. After just becoming used to Bunghole as our new home, everything is disrupted again. I took a look at the Grapeshots (GS) website and concluded the following:

Advantages of the new venue over the old
- Jonathan is the manager
- Close to Liverpool Street station

Disadvantages of GS over TBH
- East of Bishopsgate
- More inconvenient for Waterloo
- Menu link on the website broken, so unable to check menu
- No private rooms
- poor selection of ports on the wine list menu

I am not convinced of the merits of moving to our third location in three months! I think we need to ask for willing volunteers to undertake a personal inspection of GS before we come to a decision.

Any volunteers?

[DRT]

I am happy to take a look, but the location and prospect of moving from TBH are both very unappealing to me.

[RAYC]

I am happy to volunteer to be part of a tasting group that tests this out as a new venue.

But i do like The Bunghole, and also retain a fondness for TCP so would be sad if we never went back there.

[jdaw1]

Davy’s first bar, the Boot and Flogger, 10-20 Redcross Way, London SE1 1TA.

The wine list included:

• £120, Cockburn 1963;
• £120, Quinta do Noval 1966;
• £120, Dow 1970;
• £90, Offley 1970;
• £90, Warre 1970;
• £190, Sandeman 1970 magnum;
• £65, Croft 1985.

The Dining Room would make an excellent venue for six of us, and there were large rooms about which I couldn’t decide whether fourteen would or wouldn’t work. The lighting might be a problem.