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Juliette Banner is the partner of world-music loving disc jockey Andy Kershaw, and her cosmopolitan choice of food and drink suggests so. Andrew Burnyeat reports
It’s grim up north London, as the brief walk from Highgate tube to Banner’s restaurant reveals.
Looking at the big cars behind the prohibitive iron gates protecting even bigger houses and flats, you start to wonder whether you’re walking if not through the corridors of power, then past the homes of the people who tread them daily.
And of course there are celebrities everywhere. A lot of them live in these expensive houses, drive those expensive cars and dine in the – well, not-so-snooty local restaurants, café and bars.
They don’t look posh, more a cross between grungey and homely.
Banner’s fits in well. It’s a deepening cavern, light at the front thanks to its large main window, but progressively darker towards its candle-lit rear tables.
Stone and wood floors and wooden furniture create a cosy feel to which a sense of community is added by the large noticeboard which greets visitors.
And what a community. On this noticeboard can be found details of local yoga classes, acupuncturists and drama teachers.
If you’re not familiar with these parts, a restaurant majoring on beer rather than wine might be the last place you’d expect to find.
On the bar at Banner’s are two beer fonts – Cruzcampo and Leffe Blond, and that’s just the start. Bottled beers come from Lapland, Sri Lanka, China, the Czech Republic, the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Mexico and Belgium.
There are white beers, real ales, dark beers and even a low alcohol Erdinger.
And then there’s the food. Arrivi.....
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By Andrew Burnyeat
Section : Spotlight
Page number : 52
