With drinking habits changing and profit margins squeezed, the demise of drinking pubs suggests the only way to make them viable is by serving food. Sometimes it’s a proper boozer with a dining room attached, or as is increasingly common, a restaurant masquerading as a pub. Either way, the days of sad sandwiches and second-rate Ploughman’s are disappearing.
In London, a string of notable new openings have all made efforts to ringfence the pub experience while running a restaurant in a separate space. Notably, there’s Best Value Set Menu winner, The Devonshire, but also The Dark Horse in Camden and The Hero in Maida Vale.
The latest is The Knave of Clubs in Shoreditch which opened its doors in February on the corner of Bethnal Green Road (once Les Trois Garçons and then Dirty Bones). The restaurant proper, One Club Row, is due to open in late March on the first floor and will have its own menu and even a separate entrance.
At the helm of the whole operation is James Dye of the Camberwell Arms and Benjy Leibowitz, who has racked up experience at the Nomad as well as Eleven Madison Park in New York. For the first year at least, they’ve drafted in chef Patrick Powell, formerly of Chiltern Firehouse and Allegra, to oversee the food. A strong trio. 
The ground floor boozer is just that. A large communal table dominates the room with plenty of seating for resting a pint of Guinness or glass of natural wine (it is Shoreditch after all). Tables are not set for dining and, importantly, they cannot be reserved.
If eating is on the cards, menus and cutlery is delivered. From snacks of oysters, sausage rolls, fried chicken and prawn scotch eggs to grilled cheese and Reuben-style toasties, the proposition and pricing feels enticing for the afterwork crowd and robust enough to soak up a pint or two.
On full display in the tiny corner kitchen is an impressive rotisserie from which chickens are served either half (£24) or whole (£38) and come with potatoes cooked in chicken fat, green salad and baguette. If the pricing holds steady it may be one of the best value whole chickens in the capital.
WHEN 22nd February 2025
WHERE 25 Bethnal Green Road, Shoreditch, E1 6HT
FOLLOW @theknaveofclubspub
BOOK theknaveofclubs.co.uk
The Good Food Guide allows three to six months before anonymously inspecting a new restaurant. Look out for a full review coming soon.
