The Establishment

Despite its churchy name, Parsons Green is one of the best places for discerning Londoners to imbibe. Beer-lovers make tracks for the White Horse; champagne fans get their fizz fix at Amuse Bouche. And now this new bar and restaurant, The Establishment, has a wine and drinks list that’s sophisticated enough to attract topers with taste. Located just across from Parsons Green tube station in a handsome former pub building, The Establishment gives a nod to 1970s-inspired brown and beige colour schemes, with flashes of chrome and white. Yet the look is contemporary, just safe enough not to offend the tasteful sensibilities of the area’s well-heeled City types, but butch enough to attract the rugby crowds. Our fellow diners seemed to comprise single-sex groups of two to six – decidedly more mates than dates territory. The past form of the team behind The Establishment has been variable. Owner Steve Kelly is behind the respectable Iniquity cocktail bar in Battersea’s Northcote Road, and The People’s Republic bar facing Clapham Common. Although we’ve enjoyed the food and drink at Iniquity, our visit to The People’s Republic this year resulted in food so depressingly lacklustre that we didn’t bother to review it, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect from The Establishment. We were pleasantly surprised. The promise of the short, ingredients-led British menu delivered. A salad of shredded duck confit with dandelion leaves, lentils and a vinaigrette dressing was generously proportioned and didn’t stint on the duck. The lentils were slightly undercooked for our liking, but the flavours and textures were well judged. So too with a starter of soused mackerel, served with discs of firm waxy-textured potato, mayonnaise and a big bouquet of perky, peppery watercress. The vinegary fish wasn’t the best thing to enhance the wines served by the glass (of which more later), but we only had ourselves to blame for that combination. For main courses, a thick slice of Aberdeen Angus beef fillet was cooked correctly rare as requested, served in classic combo with a neat pile of thumb-sized chips and béarnaise sauce. Not cheap at £18 for 8oz, but the meat was evidently of high quality. The late autumn flavours of ‘pan-roast’ (that’s fried to you and me) corn-fed chicken, served with tender poached chestnuts, pearl barley and silky-smooth parsnip purée were appealing, the chicken tender and moist. Desserts such as baked ginger parkin and caramelised apple crumble seem to aim for the comfort-food zone. The cooking is several notches above standard gastropub fare. Head chef is Karl MacEwan, formerly of The Glasshouse in Kew, owned by Nigel Platts-Martin, and one of London’s most consistently excellent restaurants. The cooking at The Establishment, though definitely more casual, shows a similar upscale feel for flavours and presentation, albeit in a more jovial atmosphere. The wine list isn’t a table-thumping tome, but there’s plenty to please oenophiles and it’s all thoughtfully arranged by style, such as ‘fruit-driven’ reds or ‘fragrant and floral’ whites. They also offer wine ‘flights’ organised around a theme. There are four (costing £14-£17): ‘sauvignon blancs from around the world’; ‘aromatic whites’; ‘big, bold and beautiful’ (reds); and ‘silky stylish reds’. Flights are usually small tasters adding up to a legal measure (say 125ml), but here they use the term to describe three measures each of 125ml – ie each flight equalling a half-bottle in total. The by-the-glass offerings are also far from run-of-the-mill, with the likes of Piedmontese arneis, Aussie riesling and Kiwi pinot noir, all from good producers. There’s a separate bar area with tall stools and an enticing cocktail list overseen by mixologist Tim Oakley. The gin, tequila and genever (Dutch gin) selections are particularly impressive. The service on our visit was smiling, timely and conscientious to a fault. The parson himself would be pleased.

http://www.timeout.com/london/bars/12484.html