Drapers Arms
LOW INTERVENTION COOKING
When I meet my daughter in London, our choice of where to eat is based entirely on the wine list. We’re after one that’s been curated, with at least a heavy leaning toward low production / low intervention wines. If they take that much care with the wine, chances are the food will be above decent too.
We’ve recently been discussing a Premier Cru podcast interview with owner, Nick Gibson, about his obsession with wine and sharing the pleasures of his cellar, with no desire to exploit profit opportunities. So, it is we’re here and twenty-one years after our last visit, when my daughter was mostly asleep in her pushchair.
Drapers Arms menu
Its late Georgian/early Victorian supermodel bone structure means it’s effortlessly cool with high ceiling, duck egg walls and a well-worn in, dark-wood polished floor. It’s a proper locals’ pub too, serving seasonal ‘gastro fare’ for the quirky, well-minted Islington/Barnsbury set.
Drapers Arms bar
My daughter gets to choose the wine, pushing hard on my budget tolerance before suggesting an Austrian Sauvignon Blanc ‘Green Dragonfly’ 2022. Its light sparkle lands like a gossamer thin piece of ice shattering over my taste buds, spraying them with a hit of pear, before minerality comes into play leaving layers of spice and citrus to take over before a lovely saline finish and mouth feel. It’s my favourite wine of the year so far; actually, make that a very long time and well worth the £85 price tag.
Green Dragonfly 2022
It’s a season focussed menu and spotting winter tomato salad is also a welcome sign of how near spring is; the Black Iberika variety, served with plump green olives, red onion and pecorino croutons. The croutons are too overdone and almost crunch resistant (with 50+ year old teeth), but there’s abundant pleasure in the generous puddle of a lightly citrussy, basil-loaded and peppery EVOO, that’s like a blast of sunshine on your face.
Winter tomato salad
Refusing to let the bowl go, we’re brought two thick slices of sourdough ‘on the house’, immediately putting it to work until there isn’t the faintest smear of basil oil on the bowl.
Salmon rillettes, pickled cucumbers and sourdough
Across the table there’s a happy owner of salmon rillettes, pickled cucumbers and sourdough that means the conversation dips, leaving communication purely through contented nods and expressions. She’s equally pleased with the Le Petit Salé aux lentilles—sausage and lentils—with a salty hit from lardons and warmth from its Dijon mustard dressing. It’s a chanson d’amour to French country cooking.
Le Petit Salé aux lentilles
I’m opting for the Italian promise of cima di rapa and Barnsley lamb chop. But, as perturbed as I am with my lamb being raw under an inadequate sear, it’s that my cime di rapa is uncooked that jars me most and not even a heavy hand of anchovy dressing can make that palatable; I’m all for ‘low intervention’ in the kitchen, but this is too low for me. It then takes so long to attract someone’s attention, the wine is nearly gone and I’ve decided against them having another go at it.
Barnsley chop, cime di rapa, anchovy dressing
Pity really, as the rest is well above decent and with that wine list, it will definitely not be another 21 years before I’m back.
Bill £155.14 (£43 food* / £85 wine / £17.14 service charge) *not charged for the lamb
The Drapers Arms, 44 Barnsbury Street, Islington, N1 1ER
25/02/2025
