Fare
Clerkenwell, London
For some, Fare is quite simply a lovely place to stop for a pizza and a nice bottle of wine. For others, those of a bibulous persuasion, it is one of the finest places in London to drink wine made by the who’s who of cult producers. Fare is every sommelier and wine buyer’s worst-kept secret. With its floor-to-ceiling windows hung with plants, a large horseshoe bar and rows of utilitarian wooden tables and chairs, it’s attractive though unostentatious. The wine is the point. Michael Sager of Sager and Wilde (locations in Hackney and Bethnal Green) is behind the list, a comprehensive rundown of thrilling modern tipples from Europe and the US. Bottles start at £26, but you can have a lot of fun with £50, a whole heap more with £100. How to capture the scope of the list? By considering the regions featured, from Serbia to Pantelleria, Tenerife to the Temecula Valley; and the wealth of producers listed – as diverse as California’s storied Ridge Estate, activists Vins et Volailles, and low-intervention legends including Milan Nestarec and Arianna Occhipinti. Keeping the wine company is an unpretentious but always interesting menu of wood-fired pizzas (pancetta with datterini tomatoes, perhaps, or stracciatella with octopus carpaccio), fresh pasta, small plates, and wood-fired dishes such as pork with collared greens and calçot relish or a tomahawk steak with morels and wild garlic.
Dining Information:
Private dining room, Separate bar, Counter seating, Wheelchair access, Family friendly, Credit card required
11 Old Street, Clerkenwell EC1V 9HL
020 3034 0736
