Champagne & Fromage opening in Brixton soon

[boohoo]

Is CR dearer or cheaper than your current?

Probably depends which bit of CR - however we'd have to try and get something at a similar price.

 

[Gramsci]

I think the "slice of fantasy rural rustic life" is something you've invented.

As I understand it, they are stocking grower champagne (Récoltant-Manipulant) rather than champagne from the large houses. In other words, independent producers who own the vineyards the wine comes from.

In France, this is considered a good thing. Supporting independent producers. Here, it would appear that champagne as a drink is so freighted with negative connotation that the positive side of things is obscured.

From a review:

Many of the fittings have been salvaged from closing restaurants and restored or refurbished to give a shabby chic interior that has the feeling of having just popped up on Wellington Street from a French village.

This:

from the artfully worn interiors, to the enthusiastic servers, to the unapologetically decadent food – was just as a French bistro should be.

A French Bistro was what we would call a Cafe.

The well worn interiors of C&F are a fabrication. C&F is designed like that. In reality it is a high end luxury product. When I say product I do not just mean the champagne. I mean the whole brand. This has been thought out and marketed. The people who set up this business are not stupid. Its not really a French cafe its a fantasy reconstruction for the well off. Its a luxury brand ( there is logo for The Luxury Network on there website).

There website goes on about "authentic French flair" and "rustic".

This is not France and the connotations are different. You are right to say connotations. The design of there "bistro" invokes in the reviewers that this is an authentic bit of France in London. Its a marketing fantasy aimed at the well off.

 

[boohoo]

So if the champagne shop goes away, will we have won?

 

[alfajobrob]

That's true. If you drive through South Ken/Earl's Court at end of school time you see all the rich kids being picked up by Filippinos.

Really.....I tend not to hang around school gates due to the banning order.....sounds good though.

If I had the parental joy of producing a little oxygen thief...I'd pack the cunt off to boarding school before that stage...they sound like good parents, but each to there own eh.

 

[peterkro]

^^ I went past the other day and the tables are "French cafe" originals the type of thing that cost next to nothing in France but are exported here for extortionate prices.

 

[ash]

This thing is a cycle right - the rise and fall of a place's fortunes. So when was Brixton last a predominantly middle-class area? Anyone know? Gramsci ?

Complicated:
My partner has local genes:
1930 his grandparents worked in several butchers shops ( one was where the golden curry is now in Clapham.
1938 they lived in
Brayburn avenue clapham (rooms in a house), brixton hill was where the posh people lived (owner of the butchers)

 

[Gramsci]

This thing is a cycle right - the rise and fall of a place's fortunes. So when was Brixton last a predominantly middle-class area? Anyone know? Gramsci ?

When the railway first came here it was a more upmarket area. Have a look editor then and now photos.

Bon Marche is good example.

c. 1905
This impressive building was opened in 1905 as an extension to the sprawling Bon Marché empire (which was already employing over 400 people in 1888).

Bon Marché's first store opened in Brixton in 1877, the first purpose built department store in the country.

 

[Gramsci]

So if the champagne shop goes away, will we have won?

Yes

 

[boohoo]

When the railway first came here it was a more upmarket area. Have a look then and now photos.
Bon Marche is good example.

In the 1890s, the area was full of the music hall stars.

 

[boohoo]

Yes

won what ?

 

[leanderman]

From a review:



This:



A French Bistro was what we would call a Cafe.

The well worn interiors of C&F are a fabrication. C&F is designed like that. In reality it is a high end luxury product. When I say product I do not just mean the champagne. I mean the whole brand. This has been thought out and marketed. The people who set up this business are not stupid. Its not really a French cafe its a fantasy reconstruction for the well off. Its a luxury brand ( there is logo for The Luxury Network on there website).

There website goes on about "authentic French flair" and "rustic".

This is not France and the connotations are different. You are right to say connotations. The design of there "bistro" invokes in the reviewers that this is an authentic bit of France in London. Its a marketing fantasy aimed at the well off.

This is true but the accents and the produce are French.

Hell of a lot of a French folk around here. Maybe they'll keep it in business.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

I don't see anyone driving any fucking zebras around Brixton nowadays. Zebras, I'd give a pass to. Champagne and top hats can fuck off.

 

[Hollis]

This is not France and the connotations are different. You are right to say connotations. The design of there "bistro" invokes in the reviewers that this is an authentic bit of France in London. Its a marketing fantasy aimed at the well off.

Café/Restaurant in 'selling a fantasy' shocker..

 

[Gramsci]

This is true but the accents and the produce are French.

Hell of a lot of a French folk around here. Maybe they'll keep it in business.

I will ask my French friend what he thinks of this. He is from Marseilles though. It is all quite different down there from this rustic bistro fantasy.

 

[leanderman]

I will ask my French friend what he thinks of this. He is from Marseilles though. It is all quite different down there from this rustic bistro fantasy.

Most 'foreign' restaurants are inauthentic.

 

[gaijingirl]

I bet they sell a great mature gouda. I love mature gouda. /gentrifier

there was a lovely stall at the Lambeth Country show selling mature Dutch cheeses. I'd never had a mature Edam/Gouda before... they were gorgeous. They sold them for 3 really large pieces for a tenner. They were yummy... completely different from the Gouda/Edam in the supermarket, very different taste. We bought a couple of flavoured ones too. They had a sign up saying "We want to do more business in London"... wish I knew who they were or where they are now, 'cos I'd love some more.

 

[Hollis]

Most 'foreign' restaurants are inauthentic.

Though I do remember when "authentic" Irish pubs got refitted as Irish theme pubs.. Valiant Trooper near Goodge St for example.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

there was a lovely stall at the Lambeth Country show selling mature Dutch cheeses. I'd never had a mature Edam/Gouda before... they were gorgeous. They sold them for 3 really large pieces for a tenner. They were yummy... completely different from the Gouda/Edam in the supermarket, very different taste. We bought a couple of flavoured ones too. They had a sign up saying "We want to do more business in London"... wish I knew who they were or where they are now, 'cos I'd love some more.

Crunchy cheese. I'd never had crunchy cheese before. You can buy it at Borough Market, and many years ago there was a shop in East Dulwich that sold it. Only places I've seen it in Britain.

 

[Gramsci]

Café/Restaurant in 'selling a fantasy' shocker..

Went to see Zizek film on Ideology at Ritzy last week. He goes into how some of this works.

Selling fantasies is how modern consumerist capitalism operates.

Advertising and marketing work on peoples desires. Or help to create desires.

Its not my idea. Plenty has been written this.

 

[gaijingirl]

"Yummy mummy is a slang term used in the United Kingdom to describe young, attractive and wealthy mothers" - Wikipedia

So if you're not wealthy you are not being got at. I actually think it's more class than wealth.

ah... NOW I know why I don't fit the bill...

 

[gaijingirl]

Crunchy cheese. I'd never had crunchy cheese before. You can buy it at Borough Market, and many years ago there was a shop in East Dulwich that sold it. Only places I've seen it in Britain.

ah.. that's a shame. I think I probably know the shop in E. Dulwich that sells it and obviously know Borough Market. Very unlikely to go to either again any time soon. Shame. I thought people would pop up and say it's sold all over the place now. It was very lovely. But still - good to know, I might add it to my Christmas list.

 

[Hollis]

Went to see Zizek film on Ideology at Ritzy last week. He goes into how some of this works.

Selling fantasies is how modern consumerist capitalism operates.

Advertising and marketing work on peoples desires. Or help to create desires.

Its not my idea. Plenty has been written this.

yes - I fully agree with you..

 

[Gramsci]

Most 'foreign' restaurants are inauthentic.

I meant Marseille is not quite what some people think France is like. My friend from Marseille showed me recently a French newspaper with a photo of a guy holding an AK47 on front page. It was a member of a drugs gang. Big problem in that city. Somehow do not think that is what C&F marketing would have as part of there ambiance.

 

[leanderman]

I meant Marseille is not quite what some people think France is like. He showed me recently French newspaper with a guy holding an AK47. It was a member of a drugs gang. Big problem in that city. Somehow do not think that is what C&F marketing would have as part of there ambiance.

Went there last year. Rough old place in parts although centre now revamped by Norman Foster. High murder rate has made recent headlines.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

ah.. that's a shame. I think I probably know the shop in E. Dulwich that sells it and obviously know Borough Market. Very unlikely to go to either again any time soon. Shame. I thought people would pop up and say it's sold all over the place now. It was very lovely. But still - good to know, I might add it to my Christmas list.

The posh cheese shop about half way up the hill on the left. Sure it's the only one. Was pricey, mind, but by buggery, it was good.

 

[leanderman]

The posh cheese shop about half way up the hill on the left. Sure it's the only one. Was pricey, mind, but by buggery, it was good.

East Dulwich Cheese Block, now made obsolete by title of this thread.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

East Dulwich Cheese Block, now made obsolete by title of this thread.

And here perhaps we have a problem. I like posh cheese. I might appreciate this place. /gentrifier

 

[gaijingirl]

The posh cheese shop about half way up the hill on the left. Sure it's the only one. Was pricey, mind, but by buggery, it was good.

the one I know is on Lordship Lane, The Cheese Block, East side in the middle of all the shops - very flat - there's a hill going up from the station to Sainsbury's and a hill at the other end of Lordship Lane going up to the S. Circular - but this one is very much on the flat. So maybe there are two? That being said, I've only bought cheese there 2x I think, once pre-kids and once I made the mistake of taking a buggy into there around Christmas time. Haven't been back since.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

the one I know is on Lordship Lane, The Cheese Block, East side in the middle of all the shops - very flat - there's a hill going up from the station to Sainsbury's and a hill at the other end of Lordship Lane going up to the S. Circular - but this one is very much on the flat. So maybe there are two? That being said, I've only bought cheese there 2x I think, once pre-kids and once I made the mistake of taking a buggy into there around Christmas time. Haven't been back since.

No, same one. Lordship Lane, on the left as you go up from the junction at the bottom. My mate used to live at the top of LL by the Plough, so I'd walk up it. You're right, the first bit is rather flat.

ETA I know the Plough isn't the Plough now...

 

[leanderman]

the one I know is on Lordship Lane, The Cheese Block, East side in the middle of all the shops - very flat - there's a hill going up from the station to Sainsbury's and a hill at the other end of Lordship Lane going up to the S. Circular - but this one is very much on the flat. So maybe there are two? That being said, I've only bought cheese there 2x I think, once pre-kids and once I made the mistake of taking a buggy into there around Christmas time. Haven't been back since.

Just the one you named. Dangerously good. But I avoid shopping in E Dulwich, except for kids' shoes.