The time has come…

It has been a long road travelled.  At last, www.thegarrison.co.uk (v2) has arrived and we’re fondly saying farewell to Cinema listing / blog world. A bit sad, but really, the new site has been in the works for rather long time and is very exciting.

This new foray online comes with many promises – monthly recipes from Gerald, love notes and musings from the secret drawer on table 16, listings updated weekly.  No more will anyone have to suffer through wittering posts about the weather just to find out what’s on the screen that week.

We also want to take this opportunity to invite any budding filmmakers to get in touch with short films and such for screening in the New Year.  For that matter, we’d like to hear from anyone with requests for our Sunday night film club or who might be interested in curating a night or two.

Follow us on Twitter @TheGarrisonSE1 or come see the new site – either way, stay in touch.

October listings

Well, at last we’ve had that late bit of summer we’ve all been holding out for, and WHAT A GREAT BIT OF SUMMER!  Amazing.  Couldn’t have asked for more.

It’s the closure I’ve been looking for; I feel placated, ready to tackle the next few months head on.  Winter tyres are going on the bike next week and my most stylish thermal leggings replete with stirrups will shortly be back in circulation.

We’re also deep in the final(ish) stages of our new website and are going to take this opportunity to give the Cinema Sessions a little freshen up.  If anyone would like to contribute some ideas, feedback, requests for films, new popcorn flavours – whatever – we’d like to know what you think.

In the meantime, another month of our finest film picks.  Every Sunday, 7pm.  Intermissions, fish fingers, pints and chocolate sundaes.  Free to get in.

9th Oct – Fair Game

16th Oct – Hanna

23rd Oct – Source Code

30th Oct – Conviction

Bermondsey Street Festival

Just a little reminder that we’ll be jumping ship in favour of Tanner Street Gardens for the Bermondsey Street Festival tomorrow.  Join us from noon for hog roast and beers, music, dog shows  and maypole dancing.  Or join Darryl from 6am when he gets to put the pigs on.

It’s one of our favourite neighbourhood days out and this year we’ve taken over the whole beer tent along with Village East, so should prove to be the best yet.  Weather is even looking almost ok.

The pub’s still open as normal should you a) need the loo, b) want to sit down or c) get out of the blistering sun (!)

Not our pig, but he'll do.

 

A very good reason to get up early.

Rugby is underway.  And as it happens, underway very early in the morning.  We’re willing to get up early if you are.  Well, not that early, so you’re on your own for those 3.30am matches.

At the weekends, however, we will be at the ready with bacon sarnies and pots of coffee and whatever else you need to get you through all that excitement pre-10am.

These are our plans thus far:

Sat 10th, 9.30am – Argentina v England

Sun 11th, 9.30am – South Africa v Wales

Sat 17th, 9.30am – Australia v Ireland

Sun 18th, 9.30am – France v Canada

Sat 24th – BOOKED – sorry, but come see us at the Bermondsey St Festival instead!

Sun 25th, 8.30am – Argentina v Scotland

Sat 1st, 8.30am – England v Scotland

Sun 2nd, 8.30am – Ireland v Italy

We’ll have the rest of the matches (that are on during normal hours) showing so long as the Cinema’s not booked.  Give us a ring or pop your head in to find out what’s on.

 

 

Before stew & hibernation kicks in…

As we all drag our feet through the last few days of summer, I’m half expecting to transport my duvet to the sofa by the end of the week and move in there with a supply of stews and hot chocolate at arms’ length ’til next spring comes round.  Then again, all the really good summer bits happen in September and they’re just that much more enjoyable because of the unexpected factor.

Things like the Bermondsey Street Festival and some exciting changes in the making for our Cinema Sessions are still to come, and in the meantime, a month of great films to keep our Sunday nights free from the depressing and dark selections inevitably on Film4.

4th Sept – Rabbit Hole

11th Sept – The Kennedys

18th Sept – Inside Job

25th Sept – Battle: Los Angeles

School’s out

If only we were all still 10, today would be the first Monday we’d wake up to find the world was our summer-holiday oyster.

Gazing out the window today, I did feel a slight twinge of resentment towards the kids tearing up the park.  Then it chucked it down, they all fled and I felt mildly pleased that the weather wasn’t this rubbish when I was young.  Suckers.

Avoid disappointment; don’t get your hopes up and plan sensible indoor pursuits like Scrabble, and squash, and our Cinema Sessions on Sunday.

Coming up:

July 31st – Unknown

Aug 7th – The Eagle

Aug 14th – Howl

Aug 21st – The Lincoln Lawyer

Aug 28th – Limitless

Cinema listings – July

When we were kids, my mum used to take us to the cinema on really hot summer days to escape the wall-of-heat humidity of my hometown.  Our Cinema Room is air conditioned too.

3rd July – The Fighter

10th July – True Grit

17th July – The Adjustment Bureau

24th July – Never Let Me Go

Every Sunday.  7pm.  Hot films, cool room.  FREE.

Neglectful.

Opening restaurants is hard work.  Suddenly priorities shift, unintentionally, and you realise one day that you’ve not had a chance to write something enjoyable about The Garrison for two weeks.  TWO WEEKS.  I’m not even sure I’ve had a chance to enjoy The Garrison for that long – I’ve definitely been driven to drink of late, but it’s usually at home, cowering under a duvet with painful flashes of menu drafts, contact lists and thousand upon thousand of CVs.

I would certainly hate for someone to think we’re neglecting our stomping ground in favour of the showy glamour of W1.  Saying that, it’s been a nice change to spend a little bit of time in a new neighbourhood – one replete with established shopping.  And lunchtime variety.  And bars where I can still maintain a suggestion of anonymity.

As I’ve started to get more familiar with Fitzrovia I thought it appropriate to prepare a clever little comparison with Bermondsey St analysing key identifying points of the two areas.

Criteria	Bermondsey St	Fitzrovia
Shopping	Limited upmarket boutique – slightly unaffordable for hospitality workers.	Oxford St.  Everything and more and more and more.  Requires sharp elbows.
Drinking	Quality over quantity in the form of the Woolpack, Hide, Village East and The Garrison.	Lots, and I’m not on the payroll at half of the bars on offer.  Shiny hotel bars to empty wallets and gawk at possible rock n roll stars.
Dogs	All cute and lovely.	Not of the canine variety, plenty of Leicester Square men.
Transport	Excellent during the day, particularly if you want to get to Kent (?!).  Non-existent past midnight.	If you can’t get home from here, you must live in Iceland.  Or Thamesmead.
Outdoor	Pretty wimpy parks, but proximity to waterfront is a definite bonus.	A short skip to Regent’s Park… an outdoor theatre, rose gardens and GIRAFFES.  Amazing

So – jury’s still out.  On one hand, I’m probably seeing a rose-tinted version of a new locale; on the other, I might not have yet found all the area has to offer.  Either way, I think Bermondsey St is definitely still in the running.

Big news of new pastures

It was seven and a half or so years ago the Honest Cabbage re-emerged sans-bullet holes and The Garrison first opened its doors to Bermondsey Street, and just about five years exactly since Village East followed suit.

We’re now very excited to announce that building works are well under way at the site of our third restaurant, the Riding House Café.  It’s going to be different in a good few ways; not the least of which is its distinct absence from Bermondsey St.  It’s not even in SE1.  We’ve taken over the ever-so classy Chutney and Lager (I didn’t make that up) on Great Titchfield Street and Justin and Rob are now in the process of transforming it.  I thought we should keep our predecessor’s £2 pints and free poppadoms, but unfortunately I’ve been overruled in favour of, well, taste, and good food. 

It’s definitely all happening now.  Here in the office, we’re tiptoeing around precariously stacked crockery samples; our meeting table has disappeared under every shade and glaze of teal tile; there’s an obstacle course of discarded chair samples, our favourite Piet Hein Eek ones having long since returned to the shop. 

We’re going to be ready to go in just over a month’s time, and when we do, we will be looking for your help.  There will be dishes to taste, tables to test drive and our bartenders will need to be put through their paces.  You’ll find some familiar faces, not least of whom is our legendary Nick heading up proceedings.  Send us an email if you’d like to take part in the previews, or sign up at www.ridinghousecafe.co.uk and we’ll be in touch as we near the big day.

All fingers crossed x

Local to a whole new level

As everyone knows, Bermondsey Street is one of a few weird enclaves of new-found neighbourhoodiness, a fortunate product of south east London’s (formerly) cheap rents and arty business influx.  It’s a nice change from a lot of other parts of town, and certainly a feature we’d like to retain – it’s the kind of thing which allows us to host such neighbourly pursuits as our Sunday night Cinema Sessions, (new March listings here).

And as such, we spend a lot of time talking ‘community values’ and keeping things local, but we’ve recently found a couple of Peckham designers who are putting us to shame with their neighbourhood sustainability mantra.  Hendzel+Hunt’s Made in Peckham range of furniture is not only produced entirely from their SE15 workshop using traditional jointing techniques, they’ve even gone to great lengths to source materials exclusively from the streets and yards within the postcode.  Basically, they look cool AND are earth-friendly.  Can’t imagine what else you’d want from a chair.