Bricking It - Ben Spalding at John Salt

As you may have noticed, Foodie Islington is not really a finger-on-the-pulse, get-in-there-first type of blog, coming at you live from the opening of the latest gourmet pizza pop-up or the David Chang guest slot at the St John Hotel. But when I discovered that one of the most exciting and talked-about chefs in London, Ben Spalding (ex of Roganic, and the highly-regarded Hackney summer pop-up Stripped Back) was to be in residence for six months at John Salt, a new bar/restaurant smack in the middle of Upper Street, Islington, AND that an intrepid foodie friend was prepared to brave the reservations system and make a booking for a party which included little old me, well ... it would have been positively rude not to accept. So here we are, coming at you live from, well, not quite the opening of the place (it has has been open a week or so) but pretty close.

The site, just opposite St Mary’s Church, although a terrific space, does not have a particularly illustrious history. The previous trendy-bar incarnation, Keston Lodge, had its fans, but I was not sorry to see it go. Before that it was briefly an All Bar One, in the days when every other pub was an All Bar One. (Confession: Bless me Father for I have sinned. I ... I ... may have ... um ... liked All Bar One at the Angel when it first opened.) Going further back, this was once the notorious Murray’s Bar, which back in the days of being thrown unceremoniously out of pubs at 11:05 (by staff treating you as a despised enemy) was known as a place where you could pay a quid or so to get in and carry on drinking. You had to really want that last drink pretty badly to brave the charming young thugs who filled the place. It later changed its name to Xanadus and became more of a meat-market nightclub. I once saw a young woman punch another woman in the face for "looking at her" in here. Ah, those were the days ..

Sorry, drifted off into nostalgic reverie there. So, Ben Spalding is now at John Salt. The bar area has been nicely done out in not-too-pretentious fashion, and a range of interesting sounding cocktails are on offer along with a very decent selection of craft beer, including the likes of Kernel on tap, and nice imports from Bear Republic, Flying Dog, and Brooklyn Brewery in bottle. The bar menu is different and tempting, with all dishes under £10. Not many bar menus have sandwiches using crispy chicken skin instead of bread, or blowtorched lettuce. For the sake of thoroughness (in other words, for your sake, not mine) I plan to investigate the bar dishes fully in the very near future.

For now though, there were just the 12 courses on the weekend set menu to keep us going. I need to say right now that the food is incredible – surprising, playful, interesting, and most importantly, delicious. I should also say that the welcome provided by all of the staff is superb - warm, relaxed and professional. The chefs make a point of coming out to say hello to diners, but not in the wanky do-you-want-my-autograph way you get in some restaurants. They all seem like genuinely nice people who are happy to come out and meet people and exchange a bit of banter.

OK that's (most of) the fawning out of the way. We should get on to the food. Absolutely every course had something interesting and memorable about it. Firstly, the pre-menu nibbles are amazing, the short-rib 'bite' my favourite, but there are also crisps and a kind of miso soup. Then breads, with a variety of butters which are all different and all wonderful to eat. At the risk of sounding like someone on LSD, you find yourself actually thinking about butter, what it is, and how it is made. Then the 30-ingredient salad (there are plans afoot for a 50-ingredient upgrade, in case that's not enough for you), which is provided with it's own menu of flavours for you to identify, which is actually very good fun. Every mouthful has something different, a box of tricks. Then a superb mushroom course, Hen of the Woods, with lettuce and accompaniments, and a scallop 'sandwich' involving kiwi fruit, some kind of ham, truffle, and 'cider butter'.

The gimmicky dish which is getting a lot of attention, Chicken on a Brick, is very tasty indeed. Why is it served on a brick? I have no idea. It's a bit of fun. Perhaps, dare I say it, something of a piss-take. I can easily imagine a chef chuckling at the sight of a roomful of uber-foodies licking bricks. Whatever. The food is so good and so innovative I'm not sure I can be bothered with a pretension vs genius debate.

So there I was. I had come full circle from the Xanadus days, from being the chicken bricking it at the sight of aggro to being a trendy and with-it diner eating chicken from a brick. And then licking a brick. (At school they used to ask if you were "chewing a brick". They never used to ask about licking bricks.)

The brick is followed by a rainbow trout course involving 'rotten mango juice' (tasted fine to me), then a Vacherin risotto enhanced by a grilled cucumber dressing which made me resolve there and then to start grilling cucumbers more often. Heel of beef cooked in wine and kimchi was as delicious as it sounds, the kimchi element very subtle.

Palate cleansers were served in pre-Thatcher school milk bottles, then came desserts. It's not often you see desserts with names like 'Cucumber & Peanut Butter', and 'Fennel'. The first of these was an a-la-recherche-du-temps-perdu recapturing of a Ben Spalding childhood experience, the addition of muscat grape jam transforming it to a real dessert. I was reminded of a moment from my own childhood, perhaps not recalled since, eating peanut butter from the inside of a metal toy crocodile. (I'm not sure how it got in there. I suppose I must have put it there.)

The meal was rounded off with superb coffee, into which the same care and attention had gone as every other course. The smoothness and flavours were amazing. My only tiny gripe with the evening would be the volume of the music from the bar downstairs, but presumably this is a Friday and Saturday night thing. Lunch might be a better bet for a quieter meal.

I'm very glad that fine food such as this doesn't have quite the same you-can-never-go-back qualities as fine wine or (the cheaper alternative) high-quality craft beers. Otherwise I might find myself losing friends and possibly even family members by insisting on rotten mango juice with my fish, or only eating chicken from a brick. No, going back to marmite on toast is fine, and from what I hear that’s the kind of thing chefs eat when they get home as well.

We might not be eating here every day, but it really is pretty exciting to have a chef as ambitious, adventurous, and plain talented as Ben Spalding working and developing on our doorstep. I can only hope this thing lasts longer than the stated six months. I will be strolling back down Upper Street at the earliest opportunity for more adventures. If I can get another reservation. If not, there's always the bar.




Ben Spalding at John Salt
131 Upper Street
London N1 1QP
http://john-salt.com