I love London.
While I may forget how fabulous our capital city is, some days (and nights) remind me just how amazing it can be.
Monday night was one of them, and left me with a smile on my face and a spring in my step.
I don’t often accept Monday night invitations. I’m too busy being grumpy at home. There was no hesitation when the email from The Good Egg pinged into my in box. ‘Come and join us for the launch of our beer and bagels event’ at our Kingly Court branch. I was in.
It turned out the be the perfect evening for a jaunt to Soho — balmy enough to leave the jacket at home and an England World Cup match bringing atmosphere to the streets outside pubs packed with football supporters.
I’ve been a fan of The Good Egg since I met co-founder, Joel Braham a couple of years ago, a few months before he opened the first branch in Stoke Newington. He and business partner, Alex Coppard have since opened a second (crowd funded) branch at Kingly Court and he has gone from newbie to a seasoned restaurateur.
The boys are still passionate about what they do. And that is excellent Ashkenazi/Sephardi-inspired grub. Their passion for the cause make me smile.
Beer and bagels is the result of a recent food tour they took across North America, visiting various delis, restaurants and bagel bakeries. They have secured a signature bagel from many of the places they visited — NY legend, Russ & Daughters; Brooklyn’s Glasserie and Philadelphia’s Rooster Soup Co are just a few.
If that were not exciting enough, they and the London Craft Beer Festival have paired each bagel with a craft beer.
My partner for the night, lovely cousin Jojo, was only too happy to come along. We were allowed 3 filled mini bagels each plus a beer for each one. Wanting to taste as many as possible, we split each one, taking our tray of booty out into Kingly Court to enjoy al fresco.
Our favourite was The Good Egg’s own creation — a vegetarian, pastrami-cured beetroot Reuben with crispy onions and cauli leaf kraut. Literally an explosion of flavours that made each of us sigh on first bite.
Some surprised us — a boring-sounding Dijon egg bagel from Montreal’s Fairmont Bagel was packed with punchy, pickled red cabbage and bittersweet tarragon. Future egg mayo sandwiches have a lot to live up to.
The carb fest continued with home-style fries slathered in zhoug-like sauce (a thick paste of herbs) and a tahini mac and cheese.
At the same time, DJ BBQ (sorry name, but in reality cooler than a freezer full of Magnums) played the finest tunes. Once upon a time he’d have ‘spun’ those tunes, but as it’s less spinning nowadays and more button pushing, who knows what the lingo is.
When the dancing began, we headed home. Huge cheers were going up in pubs all over Soho as Harry Kane headed home our winning goal. Appropriate that the player from White Hart Lane - home of the half time bagelm - should get the glory.
Each Monday in June The Good Egg will be debuting a new North American bagel and craft beer pairing, and from September will be serving up some recipes for home-grown chefs including Neil Rankin and neighbouring eatery, Pizza Pilgrims.
Monday may just be the new Saturday night. www.thegoodegg.co
