In the summer of 2009, I ended up in Budapest with a man whose surname was Farmer. We’d been in Amsterdam, Berlin and Prague, drinking absinthe and sleeping on trains, and we found nourishment in Hungary by way of €5 goulash and €1 beers. Before Farmer dashed off to Madrid and I booked a cheap flight home, I went to the now-famous Szimpla Kert, one of Budapest’s original “ruin bars” hidden in abandoned ex-Soviet buildings. I found it to be a mystical place, cavernous and neon-lit, with a canopy of plants hanging from the ceiling among an endless parade of bric-a-brac adorning steel beams and dusty brickwork. There were rooms with comfy sofas and shisha pipes, a lively crowd, bashed up cars below disco balls. A jazz band played in front of squeaky food carts.
Shoreditch Wine House isn’t quite the same but it’s as close as you can get in London. It helps that the sommelier is Hungarian, with his circular spectacles and soft demeanour. You enter through a little alley in Shoreditch to find a quite plush-looking wine shop, but carry on into a space behind to find plants and candles, low sofas and — if you’re lucky — a dog with an unimaginably long nose who potters about on the green floor, her shaggy fur illuminated by dim red lighting.
Music will be Balkan Beat Box adjacent, maybe, and the wine list is long and eclectic, meandering from high-end French (superb Meursault if you like) to farmyard orange, which was my choice. Divisive, still, these low intervention numbers. Some are every bit a con. Here, the wine is sturdy, plucky and moreish, ideal with a cigarette and a curl or two of charcuterie. This wine bar is a cosy, ramshackle place. Somewhere to chat and to round things off with a little Mirabellenwasser with the hosts. It is, above all else, an escape.
Not London, but a regular haunt for many here. Updown Farmhouse is Ruth Leigh and Oli Brown’s beautiful restaurant and hotel in rural Kent, as tranquil, art-filled and warm as anywhere. They’ve just opened a Rome-inspired cocktail bar, Bar Vita, in one of the outbuildings. It means you can head down for a breezy weekend and relax, walk and eat good countryside produce, but have a bit of a night down there too. Think fig leaf negronis and snacks like deep-fried apple with pecorino and honey.
The East Wing by Ollie Bridgwater
The home of English rugby has a new chef for hospitality hosting this year. Overseeing food and drink in the East Wing is Ollie Bridgwater, usually found at the Michelin-starred Source at the Gilpin Hotel in the Lake District. As ever, there’ll be free-flowing Nyetimer and Whispering Angel, these to be had with barbecued octopus and Shropshire lamb. It’s a bougie way to watch the Six Nations, especially if England win. First up is Wales…