Shoreditch

Good Friday is a reasonable excuse for a lie-in and I took full advantage. Eventually getting up primarily so that could be ready to leave around 1pm. We took a train to Clapham where we swapped to one of the low-numbered platforms for a London Overground train to Shoreditch High Street. It’s probably not the fastest route we could have taken but it’s all overground and the weather was nice. The train from Clapham was surprisingly busy, a lady boarded with a tiny puppy that took everybody’s attention for a few stops, and the whole thing seemed to take longer than necessary - but it was easy.

When we got off we were a bit early for our lunch booking to PY and I wandered around the Shoreditch area for a while. I think this car park looks pretty impressive - all around it’s hard to distinguish between real graffiti and the art.  PY was trying to find a word for the area. I came up with ‘edgy’ and he seemed quite amused.  Eventually, we walked into Gloria, the restaurant chosen for our bank holiday lunch, and were taken downstairs to a semi-circular booth.  Fortunately, we passed quite a queue of people trying to get a table to it’s obviously very popular. We were the first of our party to arrive.

Described as “a 70’s Capri-style & all-day long Trattoria in the middle of Shoreditch run by a crazy bunch of 85 young and passionate people from the Bel Paese and the sunny coast of Naples”, the downstairs has no windows, but you can view the kitchen and the interior is a mirrored ceiling with fabric curtains all around and red-velvet style chairs. It’s intimate while also busy.  It was more or less full when we arrived. Rob, Mark, Pete and Esther arrived very shortly afterwards.

We started with some antipasti, including focaccia and smoked stracciatella, described as “Burrata’s creamy smoky heart. This alone is worth living for.”  I went for ‘Fregola Alla Pescatora”; Sardinian fregola with spicy and garlicky baby octopus, clams and anchovies ragù, served in a langoustine bisque. It was delicious but also from the Prime Piatti menu. Everybody else, except Rob, went for the Queen Bee pizza (San Marzano tomato, mozzarella di bufala, sautéed mushrooms, Prosciutto di Parma. Finished with Parmigiano, basil and balsamic glaze) which was enormous and really put oour - perfectly regular pasta dishes, in the shade.

After desert we set of on a walk and ended up for wine at St Katherine’s dock (where the waiter said they had no tap water available) and later more drinks outside the Coal Shed near Tower Bridge.  Catching up with Pete and Ester after, what seems, quite a long time was lovely. I think we are supposed to plan the next dinner.