What We’re Pouring This September
What We’re Pouring This September
September is a funny month in London. One evening still feels like summer, the next has everyone quietly wishing they had brought a jacket.
At The Laundry, we are happy to work with both. The terrace still has plenty of life left in it, the cocktail list is ready for those last warmer evenings, and slightly cooler nights give us a very good excuse to start opening bottles of red again.
Whether you are looking for cocktails in Brixton after work, somewhere to share a bottle over dinner or simply a good wine bar in Brixton, here is what we are pouring this September.
Wine is kind of our thing
Wine has always been a big part of The Laundry, and that starts with founder Melanie Brown.
Mel is a Chef Sommelier, so the wine list is treated with the same thought as the food. That does not mean long lectures at the table or needing to know the difference between every appellation before you are allowed to order a glass. It means there is someone behind the list who knows what works, what is drinking particularly well and which bottle is worth trying when you feel like moving away from your usual.
There will also, naturally, always be a couple of cheeky New Zealand wines hiding somewhere on the list. Mel is a Kiwi, after all.
If you know what you like, tell us. If you have absolutely no idea, tell us that too. Finding you something good is part of the fun.
Tuesdays mean free corkage
This deserves considerably more attention.
Every Tuesday at The Laundry, you can bring your own wine with no corkage fee. On every other day, corkage is £25.
So if there is a bottle sitting at home that you have been saving for the right table, Tuesday has just given you an excuse to open it.
Our Free Corkage Tuesdays in Brixton are deliberately straightforward. Bring your bottle, order from the menu and we will take care of the glasses and everything else around it. There is no requirement for the wine to be expensive, rare or something you have been saving since 2004. It just needs to be something you would like to drink.
For anyone looking for BYO wine in Brixton, Tuesday is your night.
Then there’s Tuesday Wine Club
If you want to take things a little further, Tuesday is also home to The Laundry Wine Club.
It brings together regulars, wine lovers and people who simply have an interesting bottle they would like to share. The idea is relaxed: bring something along, open it around the table and see what everybody else has brought with them.
With Mel’s sommelier background guiding things, there is plenty of knowledge in the room, but Wine Club has never been about turning wine into homework. You can talk vintages and producers all evening if you want to, or simply drink something you have never tried before and decide whether you like it.
No lectures. No exams. Just good bottles and people happy to open them.
Start the evening with L’Apéro
Wine does not get to have all the fun.
L’Apéro runs every weekday from 5pm to 7pm, making The Laundry an easy option for after-work drinks in Brixton before the evening has decided what it wants to become.
Take a seat at the bar, grab a table on the terrace or settle in for something from the kitchen alongside your first drink. It is that useful part of the day when a cocktail feels appropriate, dinner remains optional and nobody needs to have the rest of the evening completely worked out.
More often than not, one drink becomes another and somebody eventually starts looking properly at the food menu.
We consider that a successful L’Apéro.
Make the most of the terrace
September still gives us plenty of opportunities for terrace drinks in Brixton, particularly during those evenings when summer appears to have forgotten it was supposed to leave.
The Laundry terrace is covered and heated, so there is no need to place the entire evening in the hands of the weather forecast. Start outside with a glass of wine or cocktail and stay there as long as London allows.
If the temperature eventually wins, moving inside is hardly a hardship.
What are we pouring?
The short answer is whatever works with the table.
A crisp glass outside while there is still a little sunlight on Coldharbour Lane. One of Mel’s favourite New Zealand bottles with dinner. The bottle you brought from home on a Tuesday. A cocktail at five that gradually becomes an entire evening.
September gets to have a little bit of everything.
We think your glass should too.