One of the great thing about supper clubs is getting to peek inside other peoples houses. Sadly, attending a Sunday lunch at The Old Hat Club in Angel will just leave you with total real estate envy. That Old Victorian terrace. The huge, shiny kitchen. The beautiful back garden. The pizza oven. Yes, you heard me they even have a huge wood fired pizza oven in the garden. The club certainly took advantage of the oven throughout the meal, and as soon as we arrived we were served served piping hot swirls of pastry and black pudding sprinkled with Parmesan as we stood in the garden and chatted. The drink of choice for the day was Prosecco Riccardo who supplied the drinks for the supper club that day. The club teamed our wood fired oven nibbles with cocktails made from prosecco, strawberries and hint of fiery black pepper.
Black pudding pastry
This was only the second time The Old Hat Club had been run, but there was clearly an experienced team in the kitchen. After cocktails and chat we were seated for the first course of scrowlers. Scrowlers is what the Cornish call sardines and as these were Cornish sardines, that was what we called them. Plus we just liked saying the word scrowler. They were big meaty sardines with a faint smoky smell from being roasted in the wood fired oven. Stuffed with herbs and served on tomato bruschetta this dish was really Mediterranean with a fresh, summery feel to it. The accompanying Riccardo Prosecco Vino Tranquilo tasted of pears and was served in wine glasses as it was bubble free. This was a real favourite of mine and proved to be a really interesting drink, almost a cross between a wine and a prosecco.
Scrowlers on toast
As The Old Hat Club is a Sunday supper club, what could be better on a Sunday than a roast. The roast on offer was pork belly that had been slow cooked in milk and a tarragon sauce Italian style and then scorched under the grill to crisp up the crackling. It was served with a puree of butternut squash which had been slow cooked in the wood oven and acted as a sweet foil to the pork and some fantastic crisp and fluffy goose fat roasted potatoes. The only thing that let the dish down slightly was the crackling was a bit too crackly and erred on the side of burnt rather than crisp.
Roast pork belly
To finish there was a Moroccan citrus tart with frozen yoghurt. There was quite a delay before this arrived but the tart was smooth and light with just enough acidic tang from the citrus to keep things interesting. This was paired with Riccardo Cartizze a creamy and dry prosecco which is made with the most precious grapes in the region, grown on land that is worth over €1m. If your view of prosecco is as champagnes poor cousin, this could be the drink to change your mind. As a little parting gift we received ginger and cherry florentine biscuits. Of course they never made it home.
Moroccan tart
I was sad to leave The Old Hat Club and return to my flat which seemed a little small given it does not have either a garden or a wood fired pizza oven (I am very deprived clearly!) The club is a welcome addition to the London supper club scene and is the perfect place for a leisurely Sunday lunch. At £30 and free corkage it is pretty well priced in comparison to other supper clubs were you have to pay for corkage. The only downside was slow service but given that we were all there for a leisurely Sunday lunch anyway, it didn't really affect our enjoyment of the afternoon.
Essentials
Details: Undisclosed location, Angel, London (Tube: Angel)
Damage: Reasonable - £30 and no corkage
7/10
Gourmet Chick was a guest of Prosecco Riccardo. Other bloggers in attendance included The London Foodie, Vintage Macaron, The Wine Sleuth, The Scrag End and Eat Like a Girl. Thanks to Intoxicating Prose for his organisation.
Links
If you liked reading this you might be interested in other supper club reviews, The Underground Restaurant in Kilburn or my visit to the grand father of all supper clubs run by Jim Haynes in Paris.
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