In 2025, it’s not enough to be a wine bar that simply sells wine. How archaic! Some are wine ‘pubs’ (Islington’s Godet), others have adjoining ice cream parlours (De Beauvoir’s Goodbye Horses), and there are even one’s that self-identify as ‘listening restaurants’ (Peckham’s Hausu). Giacco’s is a tiny, friendly vino den on north London’s unofficial street of the sesh (Blackstock Road) that knows this all too well.
Instead of proffering a list that starts with fizzy, fabulous Lambrusco and finishes with a punchy Pinot, Giacco’s have made the wise decision to become an incubator for London’s brightest kitchen talent. So in addition to curated glasses and carafes of plonk alongside candles in old bottles dripping with wax (a wine bar staple since 1971), they now boast an ever-shifting food menu that impresses just as much as their mainly European, low-intervention wine list.
A friendly vino den on north London’s unofficial street of the sesh
So far Giacco’s has had pop-ups from South Asian and Italian fusion dons Firangi, as well as the Time Out-approved young chef Millie Tsukagoshi Lagares. On the evening Time Out visits – securing our table after battling our way through a rowdy Arsenal home crowd – we find chef Jemma Harrison in the kitchen, mid-way through a three-month residency with her Kautner concept, offering glammed-up New York deli staples that proudly show off their Eastern European Jewish roots.
The room – named after owner Leonardo Leoncini’s grandfather – is small, but not so small that you can’t share scandalous gossip with your tablemate – and done out in a soothing grey and ivory colour scheme. Harrison (formerly of London’s finest; Camille, Jolene, Koya and Western’s Laundry) is out back in the kitchen, and more than knows her stuff, cooking for this 20-seater space as if she was on the pass at The Ritz.
First come pickles of the day, a platter of pleasingly wrinkled and witch-y numbers that are sweet and briny in equal measure, followed by glossy, home-cured sardines that make for a surprisingly silky mouthful. Classic deli goods get a glamorous glow-up with sturdy little potato latkes buried under a mountain of radicchio and with the prize of soft, jammy egg buried in the middle, but the true hero of the menu is the red bisque gnocchi, with an inner halo of white crab and a coil of crispy potato skin perched on top, like an earthier, eco-take on chicken skin. It’s odd, it’s excellent, and we’ve never seen anything like it.
A chicken supreme schnitzel kiev is a beast of a thing, with golden breadcrumbing and succulent meat, the absolute pinnacle of a 1990s tv dinner. Did we have room for a slutty-looking doughnut filled with fig leaf cream and sweet plums, drenched in chocolate shavings? No. Did we demolish it anyway? Most definitely.
All of which may mean absolutely nothing, as by the time you get to Giacco’s they’ll likely have someone else in the kitchen. Suffice to say, if you’re looking for a non-pint beverage in the pub-tastic Finsbury Park (and some food to line your stomach), this should be your first port of call.
The vibe: Cosy and contemporary wine bar on the mighty Blackstock Road.
The food: That depends! Rotating kitchen residents mean it’s all to play for.
The drink: Largely European wine, but a full menu of cocktails too. Get wine by the glass, carafe or bottle, with a blackboard menu suggesting the week’s best drops.
Time Out tip: Start with a leftfield cocktail; they’ve got old school takes (aviation, vieux carre) but also newer goodies (paper plane, division bell and a Lambrusco sbagliato).