The Draft House - Open for Business. Some thanks...
So, after a collossal amount of thought, stress, dust, money, great ideas, dreadful ideas (all of which might better be summarised as Sturm und Drang or in reality just so much Smoke and Light), The Draft House Northcote Road is open.
I hope the end result matches our ambition at the beginning. I think it does. That ambition was to make a place that did for draft beer (our national drink after all - in spite of the horrors visited upon it) what our culture has done for food and wine over the past twenty years. Namely to take the quality, provenance and serving of it seriously - and to celebrate choice. With 17 beers on tap and more than fifty in bottle I think we have certainly achieved the latter. No less important we wanted to provide good, honest food and warm service with heart. This last is the hardest to achieve but I think we will get there, no doubt with a few stumbles along the way. We hope you will come and take a look, try a pint of thirds and an ox-tongue fritter and (PLEASE) let us know what you think.
I hope the end result matches our ambition at the beginning. I think it does. That ambition was to make a place that did for draft beer (our national drink after all - in spite of the horrors visited upon it) what our culture has done for food and wine over the past twenty years. Namely to take the quality, provenance and serving of it seriously - and to celebrate choice. With 17 beers on tap and more than fifty in bottle I think we have certainly achieved the latter. No less important we wanted to provide good, honest food and warm service with heart. This last is the hardest to achieve but I think we will get there, no doubt with a few stumbles along the way. We hope you will come and take a look, try a pint of thirds and an ox-tongue fritter and (PLEASE) let us know what you think.
As we won't be having an opening party until January I wanted to get some thank-yous in.
We have a lot of people to thank, none more than those who haven't shown up yet - our beloved customers, or guests as we must now call you. Well, actually, you have shown up - in spite of the lack of signage, in spite of the pile of builder's rubble outside (yes, only the inside is finished - we hope that by tonight the rest will be more or less done) and we love you for it.
But I must also thank:
- Our stalwart architect, Richard Blandy - an island of calm in an uncertain, floating world
- Wayne Barrell - our builder. Yes, we still are on speaking terms (but then, I haven't had the final bill yet). Wayne has been very tolerant and cheerful of a project wherein the specification has been pretty much made up as we went along.
- the stupendously cool and stylish Frith Kerr of Studio Frith for her relentlessness in preventing me from being naff
- Justin Anderson for the work of art which will adorn the currently blank sign on the exterior. And for being my early sounding board ref the Draft House - he was surprisingly tolerant for a teetotaller. Noone I have met is more creative.
- our chef, Simon Noumar for riding to the rescue after Chef #1 walked out after a week (legals prevent me from fully expressing myself on that subject). Simon, what a top man you are.
- Matt Jacomb, for introducing me to Simon.
- Greig Middleton, for stewarding us so calmly and gracefully through the brand development process.
- To the blaggers and bloggers who agreed to be Guinea Pigs - you know who you are
- To Mathilde for letting me use her photos from this week.
- Leigh Milner, for giving up all conjugal rights over her fiance Adam Simmons during this process
- Le Cafe Anglais for tolerating my complete lack of focus over the past two weeks (actually, I imagine you were thrilled)
- The whole team at The Westbridge (see Le Cafe Anglais) but also for tolerating being a dumping ground for endless Draft House detritus
- To the new team at Northcote Road - good luck!
- Theo Fordham of Twenty Retail for finding the site (and looking at 100 others we didn't take)
- Alex Mole (now GM at Westbridge). Again, ports in storms and all that.
- Juan (pronounced Jewan) Christian - our Manx man who we knew was a star from the first moment he walked in the door at Westbridge three years ago and who will now be running The Draft House
- Charlie Moul for fixing everything (and for his gasp of pleasure when he first sipped a Draft House Light Lager yesterday)
- To Sof (the lovely Mrs McVeigh) for tolerating an almost terminal state of distraction and general work-related solipsism (thanks babe)
- Adam Simmons (the main man at Westbridge and Draft House) for quite simply keeping the whole goddamn show on the road. Only yesterday did he finally lose it, and sent himself home for a rest. An hour later he was back smiling. Adam, your determination to get the job done and the general leadership shown has been extraordinary. Thanks, pal.
The Draft House Northcote Road
94 Northcote Road
London SW11 6QW
020 7924 1814
northcote@drafthouse.co.uk
Congratulations on your opening! You're welcome - always happy to be a guinea pig.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the opening Charlie - I hope all works out well.
ReplyDeleteClearly all that hard work was well worth it - the pics look great. I'm planning on popping in for a third and an ox-tongue fritter when I'm next in the area! Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteThanks all!
ReplyDelete