London meet early October - cocks in expensive pints

[Dex Sawash]

Has that cereal cafe closed down yet?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Pivo would have been a good venue to choose. Spacious, communal, easy to find, good access, good beer, but I don't think they do vegan food.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

What happened to organising a piss-up in a brewery? There is some rumour circulating that there are many.

all them big ones in hackney wick!

[pancreas]

all them big ones in hackney wick!

WELL THEN LET'S GO THERE

Pivo would have been a good venue to choose. Spacious, communal, easy to find, good access, good beer, but I don't think they do vegan food.

If we know how many chlorophyll nazis we have, I'm sure a booking for 20 odd (or whatever) would be a reasonable inducement for them to put something on.

[boki]

Has that cereal cafe closed down yet?

Burned to the fucking ground[nb]possibly[nb]I don't actually know[nb]one can hope[/nb][/nb][/nb], mate.

[Ferris]

[thelittlemango]

This is the problem of knowing loads of London pubs but that are mainly pokey historic ones. Seating 15-20 people however...

Anyway. I will try:

How about here: Pub On The Park
https://maps.app.goo.gl/qqkQtPpuFL3tQ9t78

Or here:
The Engineer
https://maps.app.goo.gl/vgJAx8LjWfUmjC2ZA

Or here:
The Lion And Unicorn
https://maps.app.goo.gl/6utoKyQmzf4bq4vYA

Or here:
The Turk's Head
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ybgre1rDov2L57Fv5


All bland but nice outdoor areas, seemingly not owned by as ostentatiously an awful person as Tim Martin but still probably awful people of some sort.

Pub On The Park is round the corner from me so have been a bunch of times. The garden is massive with some big gazebo thing they've added recently to accommodate bad weather but is also very popular on weekends. Basically it's  rows of beaches on a typically first come first serve basis. Seats inside near the brewing equipment (they have a brewery inside) but don't think enough for a group your size.

Beer Merchants Tap in Hackney Wick is great if they do bookings, excellent beers and decent sized outside area.

[flotemysost]

Has that cereal cafe closed down yet?

This prompted me to Google the place, which in turn reminded me of the owners' not inconsiderable resemblance to celebrity nonce Ian Watkins, a fact remarked upon here at the time. I once shamelessly recycled this joke with someone I met on Tinder - he lived right by the cafe and I also used to see the owners at my work quite a bit, so we had a stupid "guess what, the Watkins twins are in my office/standing next to me at the pub again" running joke for a bit.

(It closed last year, apparently.)

Not to confuse things further by throwing yet another idea into the mix but if you're still after something in the Walthamstow area, The Collab is very near the Tube station and does vegan food options (not tried it but heard good things); the Ravenswood Estate has the (both very decent, IMHO) Pillars and Wildcard breweries - not sure what the seating/booking situation is with either of the latter, and those might be a bit more limited with food options nearby, but maybe a bit more scope to casually wander/mingle between tables there (though I'm sure anyone in the area already knows about these anyway, so ignore if these have been dashed off the list!).

all them big ones in hackney wick!

Yeah probably a better shout tbf.

[Emotional Support Peacock]

Pub On The Park is round the corner from me so have been a bunch of times.

I used to live just across the road from it and almost had my wedding reception there until they fucked up massively with 2 weeks to go. For that reason, do not go there!

[Twit 2]

Fortunately/unfortunately (del. as appropriate) I am upgrading my attendance status from maybe to most likely.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

Beer Merchants Tap in Hackney Wick is great if they do bookings, excellent beers and decent sized outside area.

it's a good place! site currently reads:

We are now taking walk-ins only. We have a enough tables to host most guests upon arrival. Inside we can host groups of up to 6 people. Outdoor we are allowed to host groups of up to 30 people. Please email tap@beermerchants.com if you wish to visit in a group larger than 10 people to see if we accomodate.

[The Mollusk]

Thanks everyone especially Shoulders for the suggestions. Trying to whittle down the best places in terms of location and food options (Shoulders although a lot of yours look great with decent sized outdoor spaces, the vegan options are kinda limited).

Beer Merchants Tap in Hackney Wick is great if they do bookings, excellent beers and decent sized outside area.

This sounds like a good option. They have a rotating street food thing going on and their social media doesn't say what's on currently, but given it's in Hackney it's almost certain to be accomodating. There's also the added benefit of there being the Crate and Howling Hops breweries all within a stones throw of one another (I've been to both and they have ample seating indoor and outdoor) so if we're struggling for space we can scout another place and fuck off round the corner. I reckon I'm gonna email email the BMT and ask them about sorting a table for 10 at around 2-3pm unless there's any objections?

[The Mollusk]

My fiancée who used to live in Wick has said the place gets really busy from the afternoon onwards on weekends. So yeah fuck I dunno. My head is starting to fog up now. I don't know what the best thing to do is, kinda feeling like I'm ballsing this up.

[pancreas]

Did you email them? Let's stick with it unless they tell us not to. This is my commandment. You can blame me if it goes wrong.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

deffo worth a shot? i've only ever really been there in the daytime and there's usually been plenty o' space. was there on a scorching bank holiday in may and it only started getting proper busy round 5ish

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Penderel's Oak is evil! Evil! Will it win again?

[thelittlemango]

Thanks everyone especially Shoulders for the suggestions. Trying to whittle down the best places in terms of location and food options (Shoulders although a lot of yours look great with decent sized outdoor spaces, the vegan options are kinda limited).

This sounds like a good option. They have a rotating street food thing going on and their social media doesn't say what's on currently, but given it's in Hackney it's almost certain to be accomodating. There's also the added benefit of there being the Crate and Howling Hops breweries all within a stones throw of one another (I've been to both and they have ample seating indoor and outdoor) so if we're struggling for space we can scout another place and fuck off round the corner. I reckon I'm gonna email email the BMT and ask them about sorting a table for 10 at around 2-3pm unless there's any objections?

Really like Howling Hops and noticed that they've just put back the long communal bench style seating inside so it has a much higher capacity (although in a group it might mean you're all sat in parallel rows rather than all around a table), they've got some great Colombian street food with loads of vegan options too, the hot vegan shwarma arepa is something I'm mildly obsessed with.

Crate's food offerings are solely pizzas but they let you add vegan cheese as well as having a couple of other options.

[chveik]

buy a vodka bottle, find a park, done.

[imitationleather]

WHERE ARE THE FUCKING PHOTOS?!

[The Mollusk]

BMT still haven't replied to my email to book a spot. Will try Howling Hops as they've got the big long tables.

FourPure never responded to my message a week or two back either so if this becomes a recurring thing I honestly think we're gonna have to just risk turning up at one of these places and making the most of it. Even speaking as a very anally organised and punctual person I'd say it's probably going to be less hassle than it seems.

[DrGreggles]

So is this deffo the 9th?

[The Mollusk]

Yes.

[DrGreggles]

Ta.

I may well be working in Heathrow that weekend, which is almost certainly the wrong bit of London to be considered nearby.

[jobotic]

You're in control - divert the plane.

[The Mollusk]

You're in control - divert the plane.

Fuck, if it was exactly a month later we could have had our own 9/11.

[DrGreggles]

Just looked on the tube map.
Fucking miles away.

[flotemysost]

FWIW I had a pint at Anspach & Hobday (one of the other Bermondsey ones) a couple of weekends ago when it was nigh on tropical weather and there was barely anyone else there, so if you did go for that neck of the woods there's enough options along that stretch under the arches that I'm sure you'd find something.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Looks like I'm out due to a rescheduled family birthday do on the 2nd and now gonna be away on 9th. Have fun at VENUE TO BE ANNOUNCED, though.

I jest, it really would be handy to find a permanent replacement to Penderel's Oak.

[The Mollusk]

Greggles and Shoulders I'm sorry to hear you can't make it!

Right so still not heard back from any venue on this and am therefore proceeding with OPERATION: JUST TURN UP.

Saturday 9th October - 3PM onwards

Beer Merchants Tap, Hackney Wick
99 Wallis Road, E9 5LN

I'll be there from the start time (which I think is reasonable, don't wanna start too early, I've got stuff planned either side of this event and the weekend is likely gonna fuck me up) and I'll do my best to secure a decent sized table. If anyone is definitely able to be there at this time too, please speak up here because it would be greatly appreciated to know what our odds are on locking down a decent space.

As mentioned above, there are two other sizeable breweries within a stones throw of this one so if there's any issue with space here I can fuck off round the corner and scout for a better spot if required.

I was considering starting a WhatsApp group chat for this, in the event that there's any need for change of location to one of the nearby spots, so if people are happy to do this to stay up to date on any issues then please PM me with your mobile number. Updates will of course be posted here as and when necessary too.

It's been quiet in this thread for a little while so if anyone also fancies just letting me know they're still deffo coming I'd appreciate that too!

Thanks all!

[Janie Jones]

Don't want to carp, it's murder trying to organise these things. I have no skin in the game as I'm away in October but I do know the Beer Merchants Tap and it's expensive even by my East London craft beer standards! Beware the corkage if you choose a beer from the fridges.

[Penderels Oak whistles tunelessly while performatively polishing its '£10 for 4 bottles of Stella' promo sign]