GLOBAL FLAVOURS
Vegans are spoiled for choice with plant-based offerings Deserted Cactus and En Root. Elsewhere there’s Mexican cuisine at Taco Queen, European and South American dishes and bottomless brunch at TUPI and a wine shop, tapas bar and deli at the Tapas Room.
Copeland Park bar and eatery Social is where the co-workers collab, while the Coal Rooms has become one of Peckham’s leading culinary destinations with an open kitchen fitted with a bespoke, coal-fired grill. Whatever you fancy, chances are you’ll find it in Peckham: Oi Spaghetti, Il Giardino, and Artusi (Italian), Miss Tapas, and Uva Tapas Bar (Spanish), Eastern Bloc Peckham (food from around the Black Sea), Zaytoon Grill (Lebanese), Yada’s Green Kitchen (middle eastern), Hanar (Kurdish), Bocachica (Dominican Republic), Mr Bao (Taiwanese), Banh Banh (Vietnamese), Begging bowl (Thai), Ganapati (Indian), Mambow (Malaysian), Tonkotsu (ramen) and Green Choy (Korean).
For burgers there’s Honest Burgers Peckham, and Slow Richie’s hamburgers, and for slices of heaven there’s Pizzeria Peckham, Voodoo Ray’s pizza, Made of Dough, and Mike’s Peckham.
Meanwhile the duo behind Fat Crust Pizza Company make canotto style Neapolitan pizza upstairs at John the Unicorn while moonlighting as Peckham Sauce Co, where they create small batch craft fermented sauces, handmade in Peckham. The sauces are a mix of secret spices blended with chillies resulting in Britain’s freshest, finest hot sauce. They’re 100% vegan, 100% natural and don’t add any preservatives or additives.
WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME
Long running boozers the Montpelier, the Victoria Inn and the Gowlett Arms remain pillars of the community for good reason, while Clement Ogbonnaya’s pub Prince of Peckham has quickly established itself as a favourite among locals, celebrating its fifth birthday this year. After surviving the lockdowns, the Prince continues serving up quality food and drink along with regular events, comedy nights, quizzes and live music.
The Paperworks has a new home just behind Peckham Rye station, serving up drinks, food and music all weekend long, while the area’s original craft microbrewery Brick Brewery Taproom now boasts 20 draught lines, including cask, as well as a fully stocked can fridge of Brick Beers and brews. Kanpai Sake Brewery in Copeland Park is the UK’s first sake brewery, crafting modern British style sakes using traditional Japanese techniques, and Gosnells of London is a Peckham-based mead-maker that now has its own taproom with a second opening in Bermondsey imminently. Vino fans need look no further than Peckham Cellars, which boasts over 150 wines, and has a wine club and tasting events.
Four Quarters, which opened on Rye Lane in 2014, is London’s first arcade bar and became so popular the owners went on to launch venues in Elephant and Castle and Hackney. Newcomer Zapoi bar boasts vegan cocktails and exotic plants while John the Unicorn describes itself as a LGBTQIA+ safe space specialising in seasonal cocktails and craft beer.
Contemporary European ‘bistronomy’ at Levan
The second restaurant from the team behind Brixton’s critically acclaimed Salon restaurant, Levan serves seasonal and inventive food in a relaxed setting in the heart of Peckham, moments from Peckham overground station. With an open kitchen, counter seating and a cosy dining room, the food, drinks and service has a distinctly contemporary European feel.
Open for lunch and dinner, the eatery serves a 6-course set menu at dinner and à la carte menu during the day, with a good balance of meat and fish alongside vegetarian and plant based dishes. There’s also an enticing selection of snacks and smaller dishes to enjoy with drinks.
The founders describe their wine list as “a love affair with the grape juice of France, Italy, Spain and Germany and their close neighbours.” The owners work with a carefully selected range of quality, low intervention, organic and biodynamic wines from small artisanal producers. Along with a healthy penchant for the wines of Jura, the list explores terroir, sense of place and the exciting range of varietal differences that the wine world offers today. Levan’s cocktails and beers are also tied into this vinous ethos with ale aged in wine barrels and spiritous aperitifs that look like wine.
12-16 Blenheim Grove, SE15 4QL.
Phone: 020 7732 2256.
www.levanlondon.co.uk
PAINTING THE TOWN
Art galleries of Peckham include Bosse and Baum Art Gallery, Copeland Gallery
Seen Fifteen gallery, Kiln Rooms Copeland Park, and MOCA London.
London based artist and photographer Natasha Godfrey (whose illustrations of Peckham you see featured here) specialises in pen and ink illustration and travel photography. Natasha does illustrations, etchings and life drawings and has drawn a large number of South East London businesses and homes. She takes private commissions and sells her work online.
Check her out here:
www.natashagodfrey.co.uk
MEET MARKET
Market on Rye Lane is the definition of diversified business: a co-working space at its heart, it also has a restaurant, rooftop bar, shops and a live music venue. A stone’s throw from Peckham Rye station, the 1908 Edwardian building has been redeveloped to become a home to small businesses and freelancers who value being together, living and working differently in the local neighbourhood.
A shared workspace, it offers hot desks, fixed desks and studios options.
Up on the top floor, Forza Wine serves antipasti in a rooftop garden with a 360 view of London, and on the first floor is Tonkotsu, a steamy Japanese noodle bar. The basement is run by Peckham Audio who carefully curate the best bands and club nights south east London has to offer, while facing onto Rye Lane, on the ground floor, is a rotating selection of small independent retailers.
Market was designed and developed by the small team of architects at Frame and is an independent operating business run by Nick Mansour and Simon Thorpe.
Market, 133a Rye Lane, London SE15 4BQ.
Phone: 0203 325 0760.
www.marketpeckham.com
This article was brought to you from The South Londoner
