The Hide Bar - Newsletter

                                             

Number 7, September 2007

With the Pimms and ice-cold rosé still awaiting the summer, we find ourselves heading into September. Fingers crossed for that long-awaited spell of sunshine this month. While we’re waiting, here are a few bits and pieces to let you know what we’ll be up to.

Firstly, the new arrivals: most importantly, we have a new chef. An example of his menu can be downloaded from the website at www.thehidebar.com/food.htm and includes hand-cut chunky chips, sautéed chorizo with new potatoes, red onions, herbs and a poached egg, grilled halloumi with roasted vegetables and mint oil, and pear poached in white wine with mascarpone and a passion fruit reduction. The menu will be changing regularly depending on what ingredients are good at the time, although a few favourites including the burgers and Neal’s Yard cheeses will be staying on there. We will also be serving brunch on Saturdays from 12. Eggs however you like them. We’re very happy with his food and hope you’ll like the change too. Please let us know if you have any comments.

The second new arrival now sits at the end of the bar looking plump, rather smug and very happy with itself. Something we’ve planned from the beginning, but only just installed, it’s a lovely 9 gallon firkin of real ale. We’ll be changing this often, but if you’re having an event and have a favourite ale, let us know in advance and we’ll try to get some in. It’s currently London Pride, but only until it runs out and we get the next one in…

The third new arrival will be a new drinks menu, coming in the next couple of weeks. We thought it was time to change a few of the wines, beers and cocktails as we’ve found some nice things in the last few months. More to come in the next newsletter

Next a thank you – to our house vodka, Ketel One, for kindly taking me to Holland to visit their distillery. The Nolet Distillery was founded in 1691 in Schiedam, and is still owned by the (now 10th generation) Nolet family, making it one of the oldest family-operated companies in Holland. It only produces Ketel One Vodka, Ketel One Citroen (flavoured with citrus oils comprising 95% lemon and 5% lime) and Ketel 1 Jenever – an old-style Dutch predecessor to gin, flavoured with juniper. The vodka is distilled from 100% wheat, then re-distilled in copper pot stills, including the original Distilleerketel #1. It is gravity filtered over charcoal and bottled on-site. Now I know they’ve just taken me on a jolly, but we chose the vodka because it’s really smooth and good. Like all our spirits, we haven’t gone for the cheapest, but have chosen what we like and what we hope you like too.

On that note, a quick word about ‘energy drinks’. We often get asked for a particular energy drink to be served with our vodka. We don’t have anything particular against it; we just don’t think it really fits in with our selection of premium drinks and well-made cocktails, so we don’t stock it. But we’ll gladly shake a measure of organic espresso from Monmouth Coffee with a double measure of Ketel One or house Buffalo Trace bourbon (Jim Murray rates 24/25 and describes as “a whisky gem of the world”) and a splash of home-made sugar syrup, and pour into a martini glass for you – does the same trick, but in our opinion a little more fun. Alternatively we could try this recipe from one of our old cocktail books:

African Hot Punch

Make 1 gallon of strong black coffee, place 4 pounds of sugar into a large bowl, then pour 4 bottles of brandy and 2 bottles of Jamaica rum over the sugar and set the liquid on fire, let the sugar dissolve then pour in the black coffee; stir well and you have an excellent hot punch to serve 20 to 25 people.  

Cheers! 

Paul

EVENTS

Tuesday tastings: Last roughly an hour and include random facts, helpful hints and a little bit of tasting. They are free to attend for the moment and you don’t need to book. Just turn up and see what’s going on.

This month (September), we have:

Tuesday the 4 th September, 7pm
Tequila! We’ve been holding off a little until our collection was good enough for a tasting, but now we’re up to around 20 tequilas or agave spirits of some sort and feel the time is right to show you how good this spirit can be.
We’ll taste the three main categories, blanco, reposado and añejo, plus a splash of mescal (mescal) (the ‘other’ agave spirit that often comes with the worm) and show you it’s not all about salt and lemon. Margaritas and tequila old-fashioneds on special all night.

Tuesday the 11 th September, 7pm
The chaps from Vedett, the lighter, crisper sibling of Duvel are bringing their toys! If you’ve ever had a Vedett, you may have noticed that the back label features bartenders and drinkers from around the world. This will be your chance to feature on the bottles, as they’ll be bringing their camera, label printer and plenty of stock. A chance to get your fifteen minutes of fame, or perhaps a little less as Vedett always seems to slip down quite quickly. Bring your own stylists if you like, but we’ll all be on hand to tell you how wonderful you look.

Tuesday the 18 th September, 7pm
H&H Bancroft wines have a big tasting of their own on the 18 th. While we’re not all invited to that, they have promised to bring some wine producers to The Hide in the evening to talk about their wares. Details to follow nearer the time.

Tuesday the 25 th September, 7pm
As a prelude to a big Rum Festival being held in London on October 20th and 21 st ( www.rumfest.co.uk), we’re having a big night of r(h)um. We'll confirm a little closer to the time what the rums will be, but the session will be run by Ben Reed from the IPBartenders’ training school (as well as numerous cocktail books and TV appearances) and Ian Burrell, one of London’s cocktail elite, TV presenter, pro basketball player, singer and world-wide rum ambassador. Definitely one not to be missed.

Tuesday 4 th September – additional!
Whilst we’re talking about events, a quick plug for something a friend of ours is running. The Boutique Bar Show has two halves, the trade half, and more importantly, the evening open event with details below. We’re selling tickets at the bar (£10) or I’m sure you can pick them up on the door. It should be a great event if you’re interested in trying some different things and learning to make some great cocktails.

 

 

Last bit
To try and spread word a little more, we’re inviting all our customers to drop their business cards in the pot by the front door so we can add them to this newsletter mailing list. As a little incentive, we’ll be offering a bottle of something tasty to a random card pulled out of the hat once a month. For September, that’s a bottle of Bollinger Special Cuvée to drink in or take away. Draw to be held on the last day of the month.

Other stuff
Our back room is available for hire, and we’d love to hold tailored wine tastings or cocktail classes. Just get in touch and let us know what you’d like to do. We have a couple of buffet options for parties, available at www.thehidebar.com/food.htm.

Likewise please get in touch if you have any comments and suggestions, please email everyone@thehidebar.com.

 

The Hide
39-45 Bermondsey Street , London . SE1 3XF
t: 020 7403 6655; f: 020 7117 4173
www.thehidebar.com; everyone@thehidebar.com