Reporting On Random Vyner Street Meat & Aperol

Winging my way back on foot from a sublime night at Viajante I noticed a 'goings on' over the road in a seemingly random property on the corner of Cambridge Heath and Vyner Street, just before the canal. It had the look and feel of a private party, a bit of a loose vibe about it. My interest piqued, I crossed and pushed inside. Nobody seemed particularly offended by my presence so I assumed I was safe sans invite so I set about with my investigations.
It's a very interesting space indeed and I'm annoyed that I can't think what sat here before. The front is all floor to ceiling glass in narrow panes that accentuate the height of the space and help to give it a certain informality and voyeuristic quality. There's a bar at the back, of course, with half empty drinks racks that stretch to the ceiling. A lack of menus reinforced my pop-up suspicions. I ordered two of 'those pink things' that everyone seemed to be drinking. Turned out to be an Aperol Spritz made with the most god awful white wine. Stairs behind the bar lead up to a fairly vacuous space that could only once have been a kitchen. All our anonymous hosts had made of this was placing a huge meat slicer and moustached operator at the front of the said area almost overhanging the bar. The impression was one of a superstar dj presiding over a room or clubbers, sweat meat analogy still very much holding. The music alas did not make an impression. I had actually been talking of a need for cheese to finish the evening's indulgences and lo and behold, the plates of assorted sliced meats dotted around the venue also included token quantities of random cheese. I ordered such a plate for the bargain price of five pounds. Bread was untouched but assorted parma ham, salami, baloney and, what I assume was pecorino, all went down rather well and sent me home with an unexpected double dinner bulge.

The picture I've been trying to paint is that here is yet another place pushing the whole niche drinks and bar food vibe that's to erupt across London. Where we had Italian casual dining raised to dizzying heights with the Polpo empire, we've seen the stand, drink, drink and peck format with tapas at Barra Fina, pushed further with Italian meatballs at Spuntino (quick snack my arse!) and now pulled back to Spanish ham and sherry with the opening of Jose in Bermondsey. I can see this being evolved a hell of a lot further too. It was only last year that I stumbled upon The Cava Bar in Barcelona - a bit of an institution for tourists and locals a like. I remarked at the time how this paired down format was ripe for explosion in London where, imported from NY, it's now all about the concept. It would be all to easy to go off on a cynical one about food elitism but I wouldn't fare well with that one so we'll park that rant for another day. But isn't it funny how people get so easily turned on by the less is more mantra? I'll stop there because I'm very definitely PART OF IT at the moment and there's no need to bite this hand when it's feeding such titillating morsels.

Addendum: I managed to return to our mystery pop-up Aperol bar with a party of unbelievers in tow (after making a number of prior attempts past closing) and things were improving with better wine, better bread and brighter furniture. Being somewhat local I can see this place becoming my semi-civilised concept bar of choice to appease and imbibe my inner scenester before moving on to the evening's less civilised but no less sceney conclusion.

Well whatevs, self deprecation and sarcasm aside, I do genuinely rate this place and thoroughly recommend a visit, niche or not.