Our first night out of lockdown captivity, and it’s swoon-worthy small plates in Hackney
Brat at Climpson’s Arch, 374 Helmsley Place, Hackney, London E8 3SB (bratrestaurant.com). Small plates £6.50-£16, Big plates £22-£30, Sharing dishes £55-£135, Desserts £5-£7, Wine From £25 a bottle
It felt like the punchline to a dark British joke. On the day we were finally allowed to gather around an outside restaurant table, we awoke to find it was snowing. That TS Eliot knew a thing or two; April really can be the cruellest month. Still, where dogged fun is concerned, we are a stubborn if ludicrous breed. Just ask anyone who has ever sat on a British beach in a howling gale, with bare, vein-mottled thighs like corned beef, pretending it’s summer. We regard it as character forming. Anyhow, I had a plan to mitigate the chill. The outdoor rules demand that whatever form of cover is in place, at least 50% of the sides must be open to the elements. The solution for these early, tentative steps was to go somewhere that barely had to adapt to comply with the rules.
