When the foodies invaded Brixton - The Times
I haven't bought a News International paper post Wapping but I saw, reading over someone's shoulder on the tube that either The Times or the Sunday Times has a weekend supplement article on what happened when the foodies invaded Brixton. And online it's behind a paywall. I can sort of write the article in my mind but I just wondered if anyone had actually seen the article and could give the gist. Odds on for the use of the words "edgy" and "vibrant".
WHAT HAPPENED WHEN THE FOODIES INVADED BRIXTON
Coming to the capital this summer? For a taste of real London, head to SW9
By: Sasha Slater
Let's play a game of London word associations: Kensington? Palace. Knightsbridge? Harrods. Wimbledon? Tennis. Brixton? If you said riots, you're 30 years out of date. The correct answer is cupcakes, slow food and heritage tomatoes. Following in the footsteps of Borough and Columbia Road, where every sausage comes with its own CV and stallholders know which herbs go best in an Ottolenghi salad, Brixton market is the latest destination for foodies to patrol in search of sheep's cheeses and strange-shaped vegetables.
The market, which stretches over a network of streets and arcades behind Brixton Tube station, still does a good trade in lurid fabrics and unbranded bleach, but the number of smart delis, organic cafés and cake stalls popping up between the original Afro-Caribbean shops selling cassava, dasheen and okra is increasing.
Two of the most recent arrivals, Rosie French and Ellie Grace, opened last year. Their odyssey started with a blog that became a supper club run from Grace's Brixton flat. "We had a really scuzzy doorway with a sign asking people not to pee on the stairs," she recalls. "Visitors would call up nervously and ask if they were in the right place." Those intrepid types who made it up the stairs discovered spectacular salads and "a lot of slow-cooked lamb", remembers French. It was such a hit, they set up French & Grace, a tiny cafe with a great line in halloumi and merguez wraps. Now they've written a cookbook, Kitchen & Co.
Their culinary adventure was inspired by, and is still dependent on, the ingredients piled high in the market. "We buy everything we can here, every morning," says French who, at 29, is a year older than Grace. It's the sort of approach locals applaud: silencing critics who fear the gentrification will mean the demise of existing traders, who were selling plantains and dried salt cod decades before the cupcake brigade marched into town.
Kitchen & Co by Rosie French and Ellie Grace is published by Kyle Books and available from the Times Bookshop for £14.99 (RRP £16.99), free p&p, on 0845 2712134; thetimes.co.uk/bookshop. More recipes at thetimes.co.uk The best of the rest at Brixton market Franco Manca, 4 Market Row. One of the best pizza joints in Britain, so expect to queue.
Agile Rabbit Pizzeria, Unit 24, Brixton Village. It might not have Franco Manca's sublime sourdough, but it hosts live music on Thursday and Friday nights.
Cannon & Cannon, 18 Market Row. Downstairs: British cheeses and charcuterie to take away; upstairs: carousing and platters of saucisson to soak up the wine.
Honest Burgers, Unit 12, Brixton Village. Sources its meat from the Ginger Pig and serves a mean chip.
Cornercopia, Unit 65, Brixton Village. Stocks jams, chutneys, preserved lemons and the like, all produced in South London.
Seven at Brixton, 7 Market Row. Ascend rickety stairs for cocktails served in tea cups.
Rosie's Deli Café, 14e Market Row. Visit for Brixton pioneer Rosie Lovell's sublime cakes.
