Miss Smith

28th-29th Nov. MINT CLERANCE - 8000 garments for the picking all priced £4, £6 and £8 FOR ONLY TWO DAYS!!!!

FREE ENTRANCE.

MINT VINTAGE IS RENOWNED FOR PRESENTING HIGH QUALITY, TREND DRIVEN VINTAGE CLOTHING.

Their vintage shop first opened in Covent Garden, London in 2007.

Then they made the move to the creatively vibrant area of Dalston, where they have continued to be at the forefront of vintage fashion culture.

At Mint, they carefully select their garments ensuring they are trend driven yet timeless. Each piece has been sourced from places all over the world, hand selected for their unique quality.

They are MINT and so are their garments!

Visit the store: Mint Vintage 71 - 73 Stoke Newington High Street London N16 8EL U.K

Check them out on ASOS Marketplace

Opening times: Monday-Saturday 10.00-19.00 Sunday 12.00-18.00

Make it a Hard Shake @ THE LOVE SHACK SHOREDITCH

Personal favourite is deff the Mars Attack!!!!

The perfect mix of vanilla ice cream, caramel, chocolate, peanut butter and more bourbon than should be allowed. So, if you are a shake fan, then you should swing by there this weekend!! Or when in Shoreditch ;-)

THE LOVE SHACK 5 Kingsland Road London E2 8AA

Palm 2 - Another treasure hidden in Hackney!!!

Importing wine straight from Portugal!

PALM 2

152–156 Lower Clapton Road, E5

The recent story of Palm 2 in Clapton is a David and Goliath yarn, with the feisty cornershop holding its own against the might of Tesco who opened a store nearby. Palm 2′s loyal customers have rallied behind owner Abdul Saluk, who has raised his game and improved his service to the point where this might well be the best corner shop in London. If you know a better one, please comment below.

Abdul comes from a small village near Pamukkale in Turkey. He followed the village custom and trained as a shoemaker – this was the task for boys, and girls learnt to make carpets. But he broke with tradition by getting a job in a hotel, where he made friends with some English visitors and developed a yen to live in Britain.

His first move was to Germany, but then he met up with the English friends he made in Turkey and moved here. He worked at venerable Crockett & Jones in Northampton, the home of English shoemaking. Abdul learnt more about shoemaking than he thought possible, but he missed London, and got a job in the shoe trade here, and as a minicab driver. He cycled everywhere and got to know the city.

He acquired Palm 2 in 1994 and found his niche as a creative and sociable shop owner. The film noir-ish name came about because Abdul likes the sound of Palm Springs, and he had a second store while the main shop was being restored – somehow the name Palm 2 attached itself to the original shop

Eventually four properties were merged to create the airy woodbeamed space that has transformed a corner of Clapton into a focal point for the community. There’s an excellent wine section – Abdul imports wine direct from Portugal – as well as a deli, piles of fruit and veg, fresh bread, cut flowers and all the cornershop classics in terms of tinned and packaged goods.

All this came under threat when Tesco Express opened four months ago, just a few steps from Palm 2. Abdul grins when he says that business has improved since Tesco opened – his customers have responded to the threat by choosing to shop with him. And Abdul has reacted with cheerful determination not to be beaten, providing the best service he can. Customers can add stock requests to a list by the till, and there’s free delivery of orders over £15. Plus you can sit at the pavement tables and drink Palm 2′s freshly brewed coffee.

While I was talking to Abdul two regular customers stopped by. A young bloke came to give him a present of a tub of goldfish for the tank in the shop, and a glamorous gardener asked if he would stock her homegrown herbs. It wouldn’t happen at the next-door Tesco, which looks so lifeless and forlorn in comparison that you could almost feel sorry for them … I did say almost.

For a change...

GET YOUR DRINKS SERVED IN A TUB WITH YOUR MATES, OVERLOOKING THE CANAL!!!

Gotta try everything once right? So, sit back and relax, enjoy the music on deck and make it a day to remember in goo old London town.

NEXT EVENT: WED 23rd SEPTEMBER @ Number90 Bar & Kitchen

Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/hot-tub-roulette-every-fortnight-tickets-18118204036

FRUITBALL presents PILLOW TALK at the OVAL SPACE

FRI 18th SEP. 2015 (omg!!!)

29-32 The Oval; Bethnal Green; London E2 9DT

LINE-UP:

PillowTalk (DJ Set) Wildkats Itchy Rich Mohson Stars

Pillowtalk return to London for their last London show of 2015. The guys from San Francisco bring their own brand of loved up, R’n’B and soul infused house music to the wonderful Oval Space. Summer may be almost over but the Pillowtalk boys will create some of that hazy Californian heat here in London. We’re very excited to be playing host to these boys for our first party. Joining them will be Road to Nowhere’s Itchy Rich. A wicked DJ, if you’ve seen him rocking the Labyrinth at Secret Garden Party or in Shangri La at Glastonbury this year you’ll certainly know what we are talking about. Keep It Deep and No Fit State’s Mohson Stars rounds out the lineup. A man whose music taste spans from funk, soul and disco to house and techno we are under no doubt that Mohson will have you all dancing in no time!

Rök Smokehouse and Bar

 26 Curtain Road London EC2A 3NY

A Scandinavian restaurant specialising in smoked dishes and locally sourced British ingredients.

You know when the weather’s so dire that before leaving the house you mutter ‘This had better be worth it’? Well, our review of Rök fell on just such an evening and we squelched into this Shoreditch smokehouse with a murderous need for a cocktail. Less than five minutes in, the weather outside was forgotten.

The narrow, low-lit dining room was filled with pristinely groomed thirtysomethings, not a beard hair out of place. The design nods to Nordic chic, with white walls, dark-wood tables, a small open kitchen with a custom-made charcoal grill, and jars of homemade pickles adorning the bar.

There are just three cocktails – all special. An amaretto sour turbocharged with bourbon and pistachio liqueur was a smooth, creamy treat, while a coupette of herbal Chartreuse and tart rhubarb was perfectly balanced.

The food, with its powerfully flavoured meat cures, pickles and jams, is also vaguely Nordic in style, but centres on British produce, with the odd wild-card southern European ingredient. A single scallop, sizzling in the chilli-hot oil from Italian ’nduja sausage was bursting with fiery, sense-sharpening flavours – we could have gobbled up another 20. A pot of juicy mussels steamed in east-London wheat beer (‘It’s cockney marinière,’ joked our waiter) showed masterly layering of flavour. Although we expected the meat – including two huge fennel-cured lamb chops, cooked sous-vide then finished over the coals – to be the star of the main courses, sides were equally impressive, especially a salad of smoky charred broccoli with nuts, seeds and quinoa in a perky citrus dressing.

Rök had only been operating for a week on our visit, but staff had mastered the knack of communicating dish details in a non-robotic way. Our only bugbear was the teeny size of the tables for two – but even they’re likely to be hot tickets soon. Rök? Totally worth it, rain or shine.

By: Nicola Arencibia