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Please note, Nape is now closed. Time Out Food editors, October 2017.
Nape is an atmospheric charcuterie bar, deli and bottle shop in Camberwell from Borough Market meat mavens Cannon & Cannon. It’s an intimate space: all white tiles and straight lines, a long concrete bar adorned with a few beer taps, slicing machines and a meat-filled display case on view. There’s high-bar seating out front and ‘proper’ tables in the back. Lighting is low. Hip but unpretentious, it’s got bags of charm and I loved it.
That’s saying nothing of the food, which was grand. The menu is carved up into snacks, hot, meat and not meat. They’re all small plates: this is food for sharing, preferably with salacious conversation over a bottle of wine (which was superb: I could’ve drunk the Chateau Plaisance house red for days). Cucumber, radish and carrot pickles from Vadasz Deli were zingy and moreish. A slightly subdued plate of smoked mutton was lifted by a scattering of pickled walnuts, while slivers of brawn had a slightly cakey, herbaceous tang. A honky little dish of goat’s curd was the best of the veggie options, sloshed with lurid basil oil. We finished with a brick of a toasted sandwich, filled with spring onion, Ogleshield, cheddar and cured ‘meat scatterings’, which was as good as that sounds. It’s all pretty reasonable too: we left tipsy and full for around £30 a head.
These days, Camberwell is almost surreally flush with super eating spots (never thought you’d read that, eh?), but Nape is a little beacon, nonetheless. Good food, fine wine and a toasty ambience? Make me a regular.