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Please note, Winemakers Deptford has reopened after a brief closure. Time Out Editors, April 2019.
Wednesday night: I drop into Winemakers Deptford to book a table for Saturday. ‘We don’t have tables for two, just four,’ says the nice man. ‘If we’re busy you’ll have to share. Don’t worry, though, I doubt you’ll have to. We’ve only just opened.’ Saturday night: it’s packed. Good news travels fast.
This is a spin-off from Winemakers Club, an importers with a bar in Farringdon which specialises in organic and biodynamic wines from small producers. This is its first restaurant; there’s a bar out front, but the back room is an overtly foodie space, the menu far from simple ballast for boozing.
It’s in a rather quiet spot towards the river end of Deptford High Street. SE8’s food and drink scene has been hotting up for a while, led by the street-foody Market Yard, which opened last year. With the welcome arrival of Winemakers, it’s gone to a whole other place.
What Winemakers does so well is take its experience in vino and pair it with a short daily menu of robust yet sophisticated food. Think rabbit grilled over oak with cannellini beans and zucchini fritti, or lamb with farro and capers. The minerally snap of the wines is echoed by the peasant-ish flavours of the pot.
A brisk Italian Contra Soarda orange wine was a fine foil to oozing crab croquetas; while a Lincolnshire Poacher soufflé, served with a rustic piccalilli, was a triumph, washed down with a beautiful light white from Austria’s Meinklang. Service was slightly rough around the edges, but we got a free brown butter cake out of it, which was delish. And no, there’s not a lot of elbow room. But if Winemakers was in Paris or Rome or Madrid or Athens I wouldn’t care less. And I certainly don’t here.