Yahoo News Eat rave repeat: Spiritland pairs house music and bagels for London Food Month
Paul Noble, a former BBC radio engineer and the founder of Spiritland, King’s Cross’s Mecca for audiophiles, thinks that his latest plan is a “ridiculous idea”.
And granted, the project sounds like the sort of hybrid that lends itself to parody: on June 17 and 18 Noble and his team at Spiritland are teaming up with Tanqueray to throw a two-day “knees-up” centred on house music and bagels. That’s big beats and boiled bread. So far, so offbeat — moreover, it is inspired by one of London’s most famous nightclubs, Bagley’s, the capital’s largest superclub for two decades and the venue around which much of London’s club culture in the 1980s and 1990s orbited — hence the name, Bagely’s.
Bagels suggest brunch, Bagley’s suggests full throttle hedonism. “It all started when we were looking around King’s Cross,” explains Noble. “I went to the old Bagley’s space, which is being turned into shops now, and walked around. I thought: ‘I can’t believe this is where I used to go partying in the old days’. It was so funny seeing it in the daylight, stripped of everything… And I thought — what a ridiculous idea — ‘Why not do a party with similar music and serve bagels and cocktails?’”
A playful name is surely reason enough for the event’s existence. The billing promises, “two days, 20 DJs and 20,000 bagels”, each stuffed by head chef Owen Kenworthy, celebrated graduate of Brawn in E2, and his team with one of four fillings: salt beef and English mustard (“traditional Jewish fare”), egg mayonnaise, smoked aubergine and pepper, and Tanqueray-infused salmon and cream cheese (the gin brand is a partner for the event). There will also be four cocktails: one Tanqueray-based, one Smirnoff-based, a rum cocktail and a Pimm’s cocktail.
It’s a bit different to Spiritland’s day-to-day existence. While its USP is the extraordinary sound-system — the speakers, built by UK company Living Voice, are said to cost as much as £300,000 — Noble emphasises it is not a nightclub. Instead, the idea is for people to come and experience music “in a way you’ve never heard it before”. It continuously plays records and sets by established and underground acts, but for much of the day the sounds are just a background to eating, drinking and working.
“We open at 8am and it’s an all-day offering,” says Noble. “People come for breakfast, for daytime meetings, they use it as a workplace.” Noble wanted Spiritland’s menu to more than pass muster. “Excellent food and drink and music venues don’t usually go together,” he observes. “It’s usually excruciating.” Hence, the appointment of Kenworthy and an ambitious menu including gravadlax for brunch, chicken with sticky date and apricot couscous for lunch, and a small-plates menu in the evening.
It has its riotous side too. Spiritland, which has capacity for 80 people, closes at 1.30am. Hot Chip and Jarvis Cocker have played residencies: “It’s a small space with some massive names,” Noble says proudly. And the point of the Bagely’s pop-up is definitely to party. “It’s two days of music, massive names from the old school and the new school,” says Noble. The bill includes Dan Beaumont, Adventures in Paradise and Jeremy Healy, all of whom will play for exactly an hour between 1pm and 8pm that weekend.
Healy is a local who bought his house on the canal 20 years ago, and declares himself a “huge fan” of the new zeitgeist around Granary Square. He jokes that Spiritland needs to do more to advertise. “I stumbled into the place!” But he thinks events like the Bagely’s pop-up will help. “I’ve just come back from Australia and the nightclub scene is on its arse — people much prefer to go to day events. It’s happening in Ibiza, too. People are going out for the whole day and then finishing quite early — that’s they way things are going now.” Good food is as much part of the night out as the entertainment too.
Bagely’s is moving with the times, then: doors open at midday and sets run until 8pm — Healy is doing the closing one on the Sunday. And with 20,000 fresh bagels, you’ll have plenty of stamina to make it a rave in the spirit of its legacy.
The best London Food Month mash-ups
Andi’s: A Little Love in Your Tummy
Instead of being pressed to pick a favourite cuisine and dine accordingly, this one-off pop-up in N16 offers six courses, each one drawing on a different cuisine from a different country. It’s all masterminded by the polymathematical chef, musician and supperclub siren Andi Oliver (her other claim to fame is that she is presenter Miquita Oliver’s mum).
June 8, 176 Stoke Newington Church Street, N16, andis.london
Caravan Bankside: When Brunch Meets Dinner
These meals are polar opposites — but Caravan Bankside’s new chicken and rice brunch feasting menu, launching next month, unites the two. Go along and witness the start of the future of food.
June 25, 30 Great Guildford Street, SE1, caravanrestaurants.com
Ceviche Old Street: Turning the Tables
Ceviche Old Street is enforcing a job swap: on June 24 it will ask its top chefs to put on the big headphones, and insist top DJs don chefs’ whites and get in the kitchen. Who’ll stand the heat better?
June 24, 2 Baldwin Street, EC1, cevicheuk.com
Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zédel: Word Theatre, Simply Cooked — Delectable Stories with Bite
Food has always played an interesting role in some of the most lyrical fiction. At this event, held in the atmospheric Brasserie Zédel in Piccadilly, actors will perform stories set in restaurants and centred on great feasts. It’ll inspire your appetite.
June 23, 20 Sherwood Street, W1, brasseriezedel.com
Emirates Air Line: Sky-High Dining
A rare reason to use the Emirates High Line — usually transport reserved for excitable out-of-towners: London’s pop-up kingpin Jimmy Garcia is holding a pop-up high in the sky. There’ll be a four-course dinner and with drink and cocktail pairings.
June 8, Edmund Halley Way, SE10, jimmyspopup.com
Hotel Café Royal: Bring Your Own Ingredients
Part meal out, part cookery school: Hotel Café Royal is offering one of its top chefs, Armand Sablon, to show you how to turn your favourite ingredients into an edible meal. Luckily, he’ll then cook it all for you, and all you have to do is enjoy the edible spoils.
Weekdays June 21-28, 68 Regent Street, W1, hotelcaferoyal.com
