What’s on at the bar this December…

Our Resident Jock - Cami - went to NYC for Hallowe’en and did a guest show on The Lot.

Alex and Lewis have mangled together a Hallowe’en mixtape for your terror. Sifting through their respective collections to zoom on zombied pop and occult oddities.

From Hallowe’en to New Years and everything in between, we’ve got you covered.

Plenty of works completed at the bar this week to set up for the new season.

Not sure how this isn’t a thing? Claiming primacy here (cc. Simon Difford) - “cheers” to Ian and “you’re most welcome” to the rest of you…

10 years ago to the day, 3 mates with a blog threw a party on a roof in Hackney…

Nobody:

Us in 2017: Dj Stingray electro bangers to go with your Manhattan?

It’s Martini Summer! Crushable drinks need no longer apply.

Our new website is now live.

Blended Irish Whiskey for the base, crème de banane (use a nice one, please!) for the maraschino, lemon in for lime and Green Chartreuse to tie it all together on the nose.

Here’s one for Earth Day.

For Good Friday and Easter Saturday we are gonna be lowering the decks from 9pm and running late with a pair of parties to shake into Spring in style!

All DJ donations on the door will be matched by the bar and donated to Save The Children via the Arsenal Vision Podcast

Wind back 12 months and, you’ll no doubt recall, the steep second wave of corona was receding with a relaunch date for hospitality on the horizon. At the time we saw this more as a ‘grand opening’ mark II than a restart. Everyone had been through so much and the world-at-large was altogether so different it felt more like a new beginning than picking up where we had left off. With that came more challenges than opportunities: would our audience be the same, how had the area changed, people’s habits would have inevitably shifted, what would people be willing to spend when going out?

Will you be mine,

Two years down the line,

Hinge was fine,

But I’m over it. This time

I baked bae quenelle

We Rock’t & Rih

Dabbed in Chanel

I’d lockdown with you,

And lie with you fu-

Be my valentine

Twenty twenty two

December’s schedule looks like this:

From now until Christmas we’ve teamed up with our good friends at WhistlePig (check our previous feature on the late, great Dave Pickerell here) to run a Friday special that, quite frankly, is too good to miss!

Tonight we’re celebrating 10 years of The Diggers - a collectors collective headed by the inimitable Mr. Chris Airplays. For our first ever event back in the heady summer of 2012, Chris starred on our open deck sound-system. Since then we’ve been intertwined as star-crossed nerds, confidants and collaborators with The Diggers contributing, consulting and mostly being solid mates to all of us at BTW over the years.

With the pandemic raging last Spring and so much uncertainty in the water, it woulda took some real chutzpah to see it as a chance to start up a business from zilch. Better yet, one that focused on helping and pooling struggling local businesses and serving the community. Max Fishman started The Quarter Store in May 2020 as a ‘dark store’ on Bohemia Place (the sunset strip of arches down by Hackney Central station). What began as a pitch to provide much needed aid to shuttered businesses (including - lately - yours truly) quickly evolved into a bricks & mortar, mom & pop neighbourhood convenience store on the Narrow Way.

Max chatted with Alex last week about the genesis of the store, the perks of becoming an overnight household shop-keep and how Saturday jobs should never be sniffed at.

This time a year ago we were sprucing up the space, setting the turntables and winding up for the passage of one year to the next. With all the hope, goodwill and optimism that this night brings. Eager to be in the clinking, chattering company of dear friends, colleagues and neighbours.

You don’t need me to say that business has been hard, that this years celebration will be muted and we’re all missing that fundamental feeling of community.