The Knave of Clubs is an old pub, old enough to have been named back when calling it the ‘Jack of Clubs’ would have sounded like modernist nonsense.
But in all the various guises it’s taken up over the centuries – from pubs, to restaurants, to pop up spaces – it’s now once again wearing the crown it feels most comfortable in: a quintessential Victorian boozer. Only this time it also happens to the have some absolutely fantastic pub food, too.
It succeeds because the team involved are a highly talented bunch who have assembled, Avengers-style, to create what’s probably the Platonic ideal of a local. They are: James Dye (co-owner of The Camberwell Arms, Frank’s, and most recently the London Fields wine bar Bambi), Benjy Leibowitz (who comes here from NYC’s NoMad and the illustrious group behind restaurants like Gymkhana and Lyle’s), and, heading up the kitchen, Patrick Powell (whose next move has been highly anticipated after moving on from his critically acclaimed relaunch of The Midland Grand Dining Room).
You’ll find it, as has been the case since about 1880-ish, parked on the end of Club Row in Shoreditch, where it sits a very literal stone’s throw away from excellent culinary neighbours like Lahpet and SMOKESTAK. The space is in a restored Grade II listed building, after 30 years moonlighting as a French restaurant. The upstairs area has been closed off (and is set to open as forthcoming fancy restaurant One Club Row) leaving a simple one-room volume for the whole pub, awash with wood & glazed brick, and all overseen by a small open kitchen.
That kitchen is there, primarily, for one thing: the rotisserie chicken. It’s the centrepiece dish, it comes bathed in a vibrant chermoula marinade, and it’s got the kind of succulence that makes you briefly lose focus on the conversation. A plateful comes with ultra-crispy chicken fat potatoes (which cook at the bottom of the grill itself) plus baguette, a green salad, and some aioli. Frankly, it’s everything you want from a pub meal. For smaller snacks, there are also-lovely upmarket pub classics like venison sausage rolls with house-smoked ketchup; prawn scotch eggs with chilli jam; fried chicken with pickles; and pastrami & grilled cheese toasties.
On the drinks side of the equation, there’s cask ales, Guinness and the newly revived Double Diamond on the taps, and you can get yourself some wine or a classic cocktail, too.
The classics tend to be the best, anyway.
NOTE: The Knave of Clubs is open seven days a week from 12pm. You can find out more on The Knave of Clubs website.
The Knave of Clubs | 25 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6JX
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