Wahaca make planning applications for the old Brady's /Railway Tavern pub on Atlantic Road, Brixton

[Onket]

@ onket

If you think beer in the Albert's expensive, etc.

Turns out I've already told you.

No, I simply stated that describing it as having a cheap bar, was incorrect. It is a pub with pub prices, I never said it was expensive.

Since then, of course, they have lowered the price of Carling, so one of the drinks they sell is 'cheap', the others are still 'pub priced'.

Please try to remember it this time.

 

[innit]

Amaze

 

[ViolentPanda]

I wonder who will eat at the new place when it opens, if not the community.

People who enjoy faux-Mexican cuisine, undoubtedly, but they won't necessarily be from the local community.

I bet they won't serve lasagna and chips, either.

 

[Onket]

People who enjoy faux-Mexican cuisine, undoubtedly, but they won't necessarily be from the local community.

I bet they won't serve lasagna and chips, either.

I suspect most of them will be local. Not serving lasagne is a given though, and almost certainly not worth mentioning. I suspect they won't serve chicken korma either.

 

[leanderman]

I don't mind wahaca but I personally don't want one in Brixton.

Nimbyism!

 

[ViolentPanda]

I don't think you quite get what I'm saying. I'm sure Brady's would've made a lovely community venue and have been widely used. And I'm not sure how you came to think I'm saying I'm happy for Wahaca or similar to get the place. The point I've made (Rushy really) was: since Brady's became a no-go, what stopped people from setting their sights on another place? Was there something about Brady's as a space that made it uniquely placed to meet the community needs? What other places could have been alternatives? Were these questions asked internally by the campaigners?

I think you're under-estimating the degree to which the council misled locals about this. They pretty much gave the local community a nod and a wink that Brady's would be a community centre, then rowed back from that, and offered no alternatives (offering an alternative would have meant admitting that they'd misled the local community about Bready's, after all).

 

[TruXta]

I think you're under-estimating the degree to which the council misled locals about this. They pretty much gave the local community a nod and a wink that Brady's would be a community centre, then rowed back from that, and offered no alternatives (offering an alternative would have meant admitting that they'd misled the local community about Bready's, after all).

That's quite possible. Do you know what happened to ABCBrixton?

 

[ViolentPanda]

That's quite possible. Do you know what happened to ABCBrixton?

The community org? Still around, but not doing much, as far as I know (which isn't surprising given that the 3rd sector appears intent on "capturing" community representation in Brixton).

 

[Thimble Queen]

Nimbyism!

 

[Santino]

People who enjoy faux-Mexican cuisine, undoubtedly, but they won't necessarily be from the local community.

Not authentic for you, is it?

What are you, a hipster?

 

[Santino]

Would you prefer a Peruvian food truck?

 

[leanderman]

I'm dubious about the terms 'community' and 'community asset', especially in the context of pubs.

Pubs do not always work for children, some women, old people, the disabled, those who don't drink for religious reasons etc.

Then there is the notion of fathers drinking themselves into ill health, squandering the family's money and dodging household duties.

On the other hand, how sad, in some ways, the transformation of the Effra Social is.

Where now small groups of people drink, strangers to each other, there was once a working men's club/Tory club, which would have been a real community place, in which patrons knew each other.

Of course, that belonged to an earlier and more homogeneous London

 

[ViolentPanda]

Not authentic for you, is it?

It's not "authentic" for anyone, regardless of how Wahaca sell themselves.

What are you, a hipster?

Nope.

 

[TruXta]

It's not "authentic" for anyone, regardless of how Wahaca sell themselves.

I can't see that they claim any kind of authenticity tbh. Wasn't it some Masterchef winner who set it up?

 

[ska invita]

The entire High Street pretty much, creeping in the vill-aaage and surrounds....plus, another bloody restaurant. Does no-one eat at home anymore? I feel like the last person in London with a kettle and a jar of coffee.

according to this the average Londoner eats out 4 times a week - which bearing in mind those of us who eat out a lot less (once a week personally), that means some people are eating out 5,6,7 days a week

 

[pissflaps]

it's a serviceable enough restaurant chain as far as restaurant chains go. at least it's not a fucking pizza express. awful places.

 

[leanderman]

according to this the average Londoner eats out 4 times a week - which bearing in mind those of us who eat out a lot less (once a week personally), that means some people are eating out 5,6,7 days a week

probably includes sandwiches

 

[ViolentPanda]

I'm dubious about the terms 'community' and 'community asset', especially in the context of pubs.

Pubs do not always work for children, some women, old people, the disabled, those who don't drink for religious reasons etc.

Then there is the notion of fathers drinking themselves into ill health, squandering the family's money and dodging household duties.

On the other hand, how sad, in some ways, the transformation of the Effra Social is.

Where now small groups of people drink, strangers to each other, there was once a working men's club/Tory club, which would have been a real community place, in which patrons knew each other.

Of course, that belonged to an earlier and more homogeneous London

"More homogeneous" is relative, though, given that for at least the last 100 years, the area has been home to social strata from unskilled blue collar working class, to upper middle class. I'd say that what's changed, especially so in the last 2 decades (but previously too, back in the days when the shebeens were more prominent) is how the locale has become a venue for visiting pleasure-seekers to a far greater extent, and that this has had the usual effect on some businesses of causing them to "follow the easy money".

 

[leanderman]

"More homogeneous" is relative, though, given that for at least the last 100 years, the area has been home to social strata from unskilled blue collar working class, to upper middle class. I'd say that what's changed, especially so in the last 2 decades (but previously too, back in the days when the shebeens were more prominent) is how the locale has become a venue for visiting pleasure-seekers to a far greater extent, and that this has had the usual effect on some businesses of causing them to "follow the easy money".

I suspect it was more homogeneous in: sharing same mother tongue, going in large numbers to a smaller number of churches, supporting local football teams and in other ways no doubt.

 

[ViolentPanda]

I can't see that they claim any kind of authenticity tbh. Wasn't it some Masterchef winner who set it up?

They sell themselves as "Mexican market eating". Seems plain to me they're making a claim to authenticity in that statement.

 

[mxh]

Organic donner meat scraped off the floor of only the finest slaughterhouses, with an Authentic Turkish style kebab sauce? Only a tenner.

tenner ? Bit steep.

 

[TruXta]

They sell themselves as "Mexican market eating". Seems plain to me they're making a claim to authenticity in that statement.

Really?

 

[ViolentPanda]

Really?

Yes, really.

 

[equationgirl]

I can't see that they claim any kind of authenticity tbh. Wasn't it some Masterchef winner who set it up?

Yes, Thomasina Miers who won Masterchef in 2005, setting up Wahaca in Covent Garden the following year. Now 10 restaurants plus 2 street food trucks.

 

[mxh]

Really?

Market food, not Street food.

 

[Onket]

Yes, Thomasina Miers who won Masterchef in 2005, setting up Wahaca in Covent Garden the following year. Now 10 restaurants plus 2 street food trucks.

A success story.

Frowned upon by nimbys in Brixton.

 

[leanderman]

A success story.

Frowned upon by nimbys in Brixton.

Yes. But she did go to the elite St Paul's Girls' School (£6,000 a term for day pupils) and is married to a merchant banker.

Oh, and she has a silly name.

 

[TruXta]

Yes, really.

"Inspired by" seems to be the tag-line in my reading. It no more claims authenticity than does a pizza place on Brixton Hill.

 

[Onket]

Yes. But she did go to the elite St Paul's Girls' School (£6,000 a term for day pupils) and is married to a merchant banker.

Oh, and she has a silly name.

Burn the witch.

 

[FridgeMagnet]

"Local pub to turn into chain restaurant" is a positive news story now is it?

Perhaps it should have been turned into flats.