Bars & Pubs

By Ben McFarland

Perched on the top of Battersea Rise, closer to Clapham Common than Clapham Junction, what used to be Broome & Delancey was recently refurbished and rebadged and turned into The Establishment – which is a good thing. Taken over by the same owners behind the original branch in Parsons Green, the resemblance between the two are uncanny. Clad in leather-bound banquettes, cowhide chairs, arty antlers and tartan wallpaper, it does a fine line in Caledonian cool and bigs up all things British. Drinkers dwell in the bar or heated outside patio, while diners are ushered into a cosily lit restaurant bedecked with snug booths and overlooked by an open-plan kitchen. Big ticks for the attentive service.

Making merry doesn’t get more patriotic than this. The cocktail-led drinks menu doffs its bowler hat in the direction of British booze with a vast selection of gins, ‘English Champagne’, Somerset cider brandy and avant-garde English ales, lagers and ciders. Foodwise, the best of Britain is showcased here too with grilled Cornish mackerel, Scottish smoked salmon, roast Shetland sea trout and 45-day dry-aged Aberdeen Angus beef from Orkney. The cheese and bacon burger, offered as part of a more modestly priced bar food menu, was sizeable and succulent.

The regulars, predictably, are quintessentially Clapham with lots of twenty- and thirty-something locals, quite a few couples and a sizeable smattering of flip-flop wearing, rugby ball-tossing antipodeans. Overheard at the bar? ‘Never do business with a country that has green in its flag.’

Time Out London Issue 2022: May 21-27 2009