Eat Hackney has fallen in love with the East Village in Manhattan, specifically its community gardens… In the 1970s the East Village was a real urban jungle, with burnt-out and decrepit buildings creating empty abandoned lots. Residents started to fill … Continue reading→

You have to seek to find this Pearl amongst scruffy estates and warehouses. But the restaurant itself is easy on the eye, with picture windows, a long tiled bar, concrete floors scattered with Turkish rugs and contemporary photography on the … Continue reading→

When Gillett Square in Dalston was spruced up and revitalized a few years back the inspiration was apparently the regeneration of city squares in Barcelona. But Gillett Square and Bradbury Street behind it have a distinctly African flavour. Mama Vic, … Continue reading→

The Arthaus building on Richmond Road near London Fields has been transformed by the friendly crew from the Wild Food Kitchen, who turned a concrete box into a hip and happening dining space with bunting, art works sold in aid … Continue reading→

While Broadway Market is the big food event in the area, Hackney Homemade (Sat 11am–4pm) has a growing number of enticing stalls and a lovely location by the ancient church of St John’s in Hackney. Here is some of the … Continue reading→

Eat Hackney has a decidedly sweet tooth, but a chocolate tasting at 11am initially seemed like a challenge. Laurent Gerbaud’s chocolates are so light and pure though, that I ate my way round his plate of chocs with relish, and … Continue reading→

In preparation for the rum cocktail masterclass, the bar at 69 Colebrook Row is lined with bottles of dark and white rum, a couple emblazoned with the Gothic Barcadi bat, others bearing obscure French names, plus the iconic and ubiquitous … Continue reading→

The name of the E5 Bakehouse is deceptive as the bakery is tucked under a brick railway arch near London Fields in the E8 area, but Ben Mckinnon started his business from a domestic kitchen in E5. From this simple … Continue reading→

Retro-glamorous dames, glowering night skies, clouds of steam, graffiti… is it just me or does The Long Table in Dalston have a touch of Bladerunner about it? Anyway, I didn’t see any replicants being hunted down when I was there, … Continue reading→

In the sixteen years that Lance Forman has been running the smokery established by his great grandfather in 1905, H. Forman & Son has burnt down and been rebuilt, whereupon it flooded so badly it had to be abandoned. Lance … Continue reading→

The slogan of the London Orchard Project is “urban fruit for urban communities”. Since the 1950s, more than half of Britain’s orchards have disappeared because of cheap fruit imports and pressure on land. The project is doing its best to … Continue reading→

Think of Hackney, and clucking hens and blissed out pigs aren’t the first things to spring to mind. But Hackney City Farm offers a real slice of farmyard life, fringed by cherry trees and thick foliage which screen out the … Continue reading→