Restaurants

By Guy Dimond

Tooting. The name alone is enough to put a smile on some faces. Yet the area attracts visitors from afar, seeking everything from cheap fashion in the spanking new Primark and TK Maxx stores, to the excellent Tamil and Pakistani food shops.

But in culinary terms,Tooting’s most associated with budget ‘Indian’ restaurants, from Sri Lankan to South Indian, Pakistani to East African Asian. For hip and happening nightlife, Tooting’s not been such an attractive option. A night at the bingo followed by a fight outside the Gordon Bennett pub used to be a typical highlight. That was before the people behind Dogstar and the Balham Bowls Club people, collectively called Antic, started to take an interest in the area.

Their bar, called Tooting Tram and Social, opened early in 2008, in a huge former tramshed. The quirky mix of chandeliers, characterful bric-a-brac, fairly lights and cool grooves might be the norm in Shoreditch, but it was a first in Tooting, and remains the area’s main draw for nightlife and DJ sets. Buoyed by this success, the Antic lot have now taken over a former Jack Beard’s just a few doors away, and turned it into a gastropub.

It’s a grand Victorian building, with many original features, including a solid darkwood bar dominating the drinking area at the front. Wooden panelling, saloon lights, velvet bar stools and autumnal colours give it a cosy feel. Cask-conditioned ales might include Timothy Taylor Landlord, Hopback Summer Lightning or Gale’s HSB.

Slip through to the back room and it becomes a full-blown gastropub with candles on the tables, embossed gilt wallpaper and retro chairs.

Every dish on the daily-changing menu sounds like the sort of thing a good contemporary home cook would relish making. Chef Simon Phelan used to work at Flaneur, and before that, Nicole’s. Squid had been nicely cut then char-grilled, and served with a tidy pile of firm, green lentils and half a lemon, in the Italian way; a good starter.

Sprats are not something the home cook often tackles, partly because of their fiddly pinbones, but their oiliness gives them an appealing texture and flavour. Hot-smoked, as these were, they’re a good match with horseradish-spiked crème fraîche sauce to counter the fat, and sprigs of watercress for a bitter note.

Main courses included a shoulder of lamb with roast potatoes. Cheaper cuts like this have started to appear on a lot more menus this year, and slow-cooked, they are in no way inferior; this one had deep, savoury flavours. Seafood stew was the least successful dish, simply because the chef hadn’t removed the closed (ie dead) mussels from the mix before serving. Puddings include interesting combos such as red wine-poached pear with blue buffalo cheese, or roast peaches with lemon crème fraîche.

The public bar and the dining room are only part of the Antelope’s appeal. A large function room sits at the back of the building, with a billiards table, dartboard – and a huge dropdown screen for sports events. It just wouldn’t be Tooting without one.

Time Out October 2009