SW16 Bar And Kitchen Supper Club. Discover A Taste Of Italy In Southwest London.

Andy Mossack reviews SW16 Bar and Kitchen Supper Club, a monthly deep dive into Italian regional food.

“Why don’t we normally chill red wine then?” asked Pip Yarwood, a sommelier of note with Liberty Wines, providers of the wine pairings we were enjoying at this month’s SW16 Bar and Kitchen Supper Club. We were about to devour our primo course, a large bowl of very green orecchiette, domed pasta shells with broccoli tops, prawns and stracciatella. Something of a Puglia staple we’re led to believe, and the chilled negroamaro red wine in front of each of us was to be the perfect accompaniment.

I was joining Streatham’s foodies for SW16 Bar and Kitchen’s Supper Club, a monthly food and wine feast celebrating one of Italy’s regions, and this month it was Puglia. A four-course banquet complete with wine pairings and coffee for £55, which is pretty good value whichever way you look at it.

SW16 Bar and Kitchen has been a neighbourhood all-day dining staple atop Streatham Hill ever since co-owners Lisa Loebenberg and Emma Willis took over the property four years ago. With decades of hospitality nous between them, they transformed what was an ailing small bar into a resto that works on all levels, whether it be breakfast lunch or dinner, coffee and cake, remote working, or as is the case here, a foody destination. Joining an impressive roster of five other local restaurants.

Driven in no small part by creative general manager Tom Small and executive chef Antonio Raspone (a Pugliese as it happens), an impressive duo who revel in the freedom they’re given to try new ideas out. The monthly Supper Clubs are a perfect example. As Tom told me “We started off with a supper menu that was served to separate tables in a more formal setting, but felt switching to this new shared dining concept would be a lot more fun.”

I was intrigued to see how the launch of the new format SW16 Bar and Kitchen Supper Club panned out.

SW16 is a large airy space with industrial style lighting and wooden flooring so in vogues these days, and a large bar dominating one wall.

Tucked behind a discreet curtain from the rest of the restaurant, two rows of long Tressel tables were armed, ready and full of Streatham foodies for the important business of eating and drinking all things Puglia, the wonderful ‘heel of the boot’.

With the top tag team of Tom and Antonio both getting stuck in announcing our dishes and delivering them as necessary, I felt the evening was just as special for them as it was for their diners.

First up was antipasti Pughiesi, literally an assorted bounty of traditional fresh bits and pieces to snack on; burrata, sun dried tomatoes, mussels stuffed with a very tasty paste, grilled aubergine, tuna and rocket, a very moreish chickpea, bean and sausage dish, classic bruschetta, and some large mushrooms stuffed with potato.

Add some focaccia to soak up the olive oil and I would say it was an impressive start. Of course, Pip’s delightful primitivo rosato wine oiled everyone’s wheels rather nicely and made sure there were plenty of refills to go around.

The pasta course came next; the aforementioned green orecchiette and that chilled red. “Chilling wine generally enhances aroma, reduces sweetness and exaggerates the tannins; hence it favours whites and not reds which tend to be full bodied anyway.” Pip announced before we tucked in “but some, like this Negroamaro, is light and tastes better chilled, particularly with pasta.” Well, as they say, the proof is in the pudding, or the glass in this case, and no complaints from our assembled throng.

It was an excellent bowl of pasta if a little on the large side. Two courses in and a few diners were already making noises about getting full. Perhaps overdoing the antipasti which was also extremely generous. There was also a vegetarian alternative of burrata heart instead of prawns.

The main secondo dish now, grigliata mista di pesce – a hefty mixed platter selection of grilled fish that included prawns, squid, scallops, cuttlefish and sea bass. Another pairing masterclass from Pip was a chilled A Mano bianco which blended very well with the side dishes of red pepper with datterino tomatoes, new potato salad and a fennel and orange salad.

By now Pip’s pairings had made the table chatter a lot less formal as platters of food were passed around each group, it almost felt like I was at a family event.

Despite the growing sighs from full bellies, there was a chocolate dessert for our dolce; torta cioccolate e primitivo (red wine and chocolate cake with vanilla gelati) and it arrived triumphantly together with a medium sweet Nero di Troia dessert wine.

I did hear a few ooh and ahhs from the chocolate loving foodies at the far end of our table, clearly taken with Antonio’s family recipe.

GM Tom came back just before the coffee and sambuca to thank us all for coming and tasting the new sharing plate supper club format. Nods of approval from regular supper clubbers were validation enough until a round of applause from everyone else sealed it I fancy along with an invitation to the next featured region – Campania, the home of buffalo mozzarella and Neapolitan pizza amongst many other culinary delights.

The SW16 Bar and Kitchen Supper Club offers up another reason for Streatham locals to continue their love affair with this restaurant. Generous portions, authentic traditional regional fare and excellent wine pairings offer a belter of a night out.

All food images (C) Andy Mosack