Ripe for the picking

10 April 2012

Once upon a time, there was a Dominican monastery around these parts which gave its name to the area we now reverently refer to as Blackfriars. OK, so it might not be everyone's idea of a glamorous destination, with its jokey theme pubs and packed-out chain bars, but there are still one or two venues which make the area worth any number of visits. If you stand outside the excellent Black Friar pub and gaze towards the river, you might just spot the notice which signifies the presence of this top-shelf wine bar. But wine bars are pass? in London's increasingly eclectic mix of drinks venues, aren't they? The Seventies was the heyday of the wine bar, but this was only because some of the more creative of the capital's proprietors recognised the need for a discerning alternative to the dusty, run-down boozer. We don't see too many relics of this genre intruding on our lives these days, but there are still a few around to provide us with a happy diversion from the retail operators' homogenisation of the high street. Berries wine cellar is one such, and although it won't win any design awards, it provides a comfortable, cheerful atmosphere in which to tipple from their impressive collection of wines ? available both across the bar and from its off-licence. The smart thing to do is to buy one of the decent bottles from the offie for consumption, subject to a £2.50 corkage, on the premises. Where else are you likely to find a 1992 Louis Latour Corton Grand Cru for £22, a 1995 Pouilly Fum? Majorum for £15.75, or a 1997 Robert Mondavi Stagsleep Sauvignon for £17.95? Sip these down with the £9.95 'all you can eat' buffet lunch of quiches, pates and salads and you have one of the best bar-gains in London. Snack foods of spicy cocktail sausages or pizza wedges (£3.95 each) are served all day, well, until mid-evening anyway, when Blackfriars starts to go to sleep. Although Berries is fast becoming legendary at lunch, there are still many who haven't yet learned of its evening merits. So much so, in fact, that it appears to be an ideal spot for clandestine meetings. Not that you'd catch me participating in that sort of nonsense. Not at my time of life anyway.

Berries
167 Queen Victoria Street, EC4 V4DF

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