| Tuesday
May 27, 2008 |
| Up
Your Street? |
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It's
not often that I feel out of the loop. Comes with
the territory, I guess. But would someone mind
filling me in on just when Islington started becoming
cool?
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Sure,
the Duke
of Cambridge has always been a treat, if award-winning,
organic nosh tickles your fancy. And I'm not denying
that the Old
Queen's Head is great for mixing up antique
fireplaces with CSS DJ sets, or that the Elk
in the Woods is a faux-quaint treasure. Even Anam
was excellent when it first opened. Before falling.
Hard.
So, when Barrio
North opened last year, they pretty much had the
'colourful bar with cracking cocktails' section
of the Islington market nailed. And that was that: a
handful of great gastropubs, a smattering of quality
bars, and an infinite wasteland of banal mediocrity.
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But
now, with the chaps behind the Old Queen's
Head replacing the old Medicine Bar with an Art
Nouveau-inspired cocktail joint, Barrio North
gaining a sister
members' bar on Upper Street in June,
and cocktailian extraordinaire, Simon Sheena,
rumoured to be opening an alcoholic oasis from
the ashes of the old Itsuka, it looks I might
have to rethink my Islingtonism.
Albert
and Pearl - launches on Friday from
9pm.
181 Upper St, N1 1RQ
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COMMENT
ON THIS FEATURE |
by
AC |
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Shoalin
monks meet the work of Antony Gormley.