Hello Lovestruckers! Bluffer’s are back again and this Friday we are in a good mood: the January doldrums are drawing to a close! Banuary is nearly over and yesterday it was still (just) light at half four. Things are looking up and we’re determined to drag your love life 
out of the dumps too.
SO WHERE SHOULD I TAKE MY DATE?
For a Burns Night ‘supper club’ run by Off The Beaten Snack in east London’s Clapton.
WAIT, WHAT?
Burns Night is a night dedicated to the Scottish poet Robert Burns but you don’t have to be the slightest bit Scottish to enjoy the evening; you just have to know what you’re letting yourself in for… Click through for the 5 things you won’t be able to avoid on Burns Night.
And supper clubs are all the rage in London at the minute. So out of hand is this latest foodie phenomenon, that you can’t be asked to someone’s house without a whole load of strangers turning up too. But supper clubs make for great date locations because you can show off your dazzling social skills (you’re also guaranteed a table). If you’ve never been to one before, just remember that the first and only rule of the supper club is to bring the dough (the money kind) for the meal and a bottle of wine each, which you should be prepared to share. Getting drunk with strangers is far more fun than staying sober with them.
WHERE IS IT?
Palm 2, 152-156 Lower Clapton Rd, London E5 0QJ. Palm 2 might look like a corner shop to you, but it’s legendary to locals and, for the purposes of impressing your date, you should at least pretend this is where you source your veggies and your Climpson & Sons coffee. Head to Clapton rail station (trains leave every 15 minutes from Liverpool Street), turn left out of the station, walk straight over the roundabout and it’s just past the pond.
HOW MUCH?
£32.50 pp. This might sound pretty steep but the cost of the evening includes the price of canapés, a whisky cocktail, haggis plus all the Scottish trimmings, a whisky cake with whisky cream and another nip of whisky (just in case you hadn’t had enough already). The event is also BYOB so you can cut costs by bringing paint thinner disguised as wine. And you don’t have to do the washing up which is a priceless bonus.
WHAT ELSE IS NEARBY?
The Clapton Hart and Maeve’s Kitchen are close by on the Lower Clapton Road, 231 and 181 respectively and the Clapton Hart has also laid on a special Burns Night menu priced at £15 for 3 courses. Who knew murder mile would become a home away from home for Scots in east London? But if you’re not convinced haggis is first date food, Maeve’s is a great alternative.
MAXIMUM BLUFFING VALUE
It was a spate of shootings in the 1990s and early 2000s that earned the Upper and Lower Clapton Roads their infamous moniker: ‘Murder Mile’. But since then the area has been (begrudgingly) swept up in the apparently unstoppable gentrification of London’s outskirts. Soon you won’t even be able to go to Snaresbrook without stumbling across a well-designed cafe to sell you a Monmouth coffee and an almond croissant.
DO SAY ‘I love the sociability of supper clubs. I guess I’m just that sort of a friendly guy/girl.’
DON’T SAY ‘Do you know how they make haggis? No! Let me explain in graphic detail.’
