We’re back with the third instalment of our four-corner guide to London dating. This week we take on east London: home to the capital’s hipsters, tech-guys and bankers (sort of, if you count that huge casino known as ‘The City’ within the EC postcode). It’s an eclectic part of town.
SO WHERE SHOULD I SUGGEST
Hoi Polloi
Hoi Polloi is the perfect date location: impressive décor (it’s located within the ACE hotel which is a UK foothold for the funky American hotel group); ample seating; cocktails so beautiful you’ll want to photograph them not drink them and it even has a semi-secret entrance through a florist. Edgy. You could always book a room in the super swanky and super expensive ACE hotel afterwards but that might be a little presumptuous.
Crate Brewery
If you think your date is more hipster than financier then Crate Brewery might be more on budget – unless they’re a hipster with a trust fund, that is. Whenever there’s the slightest sliver of sun, hoards of twenty-something east Londoners flock to this craft-beer mecca which does great pizza on the side (not the other way round). Let us set the scene: it’s an ex-print factory by the side of Regent’s Canal now filled with makeshift tables (it’s called Crate for a reason) and exposed pipes and offers brilliant people watching opportunities.
Lardo
Somewhere in between Hoi Polloi and Crate Brewery in terms of location, cost and likelihood of you getting a table, is Lardo. Despite being named after one of their signatures pizzas, this is another restaurant where the food offerings are lost in a sea of drinks. But for the purposes of dating, this is probably okay. Note that the toilets are located outside of the restaurant in the foyer-come-atrium of a block of swanky flats which adjoins the unit. So if you see the door swing shut on your date you needn’t worry.
If things are going well, then head through London Fields to the newly refurbished Cut and Mutton for a dram of whisky or an Earl Grey martini or whatever these east London pubs serve.
WHAT ABOUT DAYTIME DATING?
Dating a New Yorker? Suggest morning rooftop yoga at Boundary and then brunch at the Albion restaurant downstairs. Dating a Londoner? Suggest a lie in and then brunch at the Albion restaurant downstairs. There’s also a great deli on the way in so you can pretend you’re the sort of person who buys loaves of granary bread and artisan oil on the way out.
MAXIMUM BLUFFING VALUE
If you’ve picked up your date in a bar within walking (or staggering) distance of Old Street roundabout and they work for a tech or web company then try to avoid exclaiming ‘You work on Silicon Roundabout!’ Increasingly known as ‘tech city’, the roundabout is named after the slightly more impressive tech hub Silicon Valley in San Francisco. Home to Google campus and countless nameless start-ups not everyone appreciates the nickname.
DO SAY ‘Brick Lane has become so touristy now. It’s almost as bad as Leicester Square in the evenings.’
DON’T SAY ‘I thought Banksy’s film was called Exit Through the Gift Shop not Entrance Through the Flower shop.’
