Little Georgia Cafe

After a lovely stroll along the canal one sunny morning, Jezebel and myself decided to reward our vigorous speed-walking with a well deserved cafe pit stop.  We had always been curious about Little Georgia Cafe, as it seemed to attract quite a crowd and neither of us had ever experienced Georgian food before, so we decided this was the perfect time to try it out.  We were lucky enough to grab a seat outside, also allowing us to participate in some fantastic people-watching... and who doesn't love some good people-watching?  The breakfast menu was surprisingly varied, offering everything from the typical eggs on toast to pancakes filled with ricotta cheese and cranberries (which ended up being my choice for late-morning munching).  Both of our plates came with a generous helping of fruit salad, and were just enough to fill us up without feeling stuffed... and it gets better.  While looking at the full menu, we realized that nothing is above 6 pounds!  Quite a bargain for such lovely home-cooked meals.  The dinner menu offers Turkish, Russian, and Slavic-inspired dishes, which makes sense when considering Georgia's Black Sea geography.  Needless to say, we have been looking forward to returning for a dinner treat ever since.  

Located on 87 Goldsmiths Row, Bethnal Green.

Brick Lane Vintage

Brick Lane's plethora of vintage stores is surely one of the area's greatest attributes, however there is no such thing as a one-stop vintage shop. Although many of the boutiques carry a range of apparel and accessories, if you're looking for the very best that Brick Lane has to offer, in the words of Smokey Robinson 'you better shop around.'


Accessories (Belts, Scarves and all that jazz)- Rokit, 101 Brick Lane

Jewelry - Spitalfields Antiques market, every Thursday (alright, not an actual store but to be honest this is one area that Brick Lane vintage is lacking - Spitalfields on a Thursday makes up for this though)

Shoes and Bags - Absolute Vintage, 15 Hanbury Street

Vintage T's -Beyond Retro, 110-112 Cheshire Street

50's garb - Paper Dress Vintage, 114 - 116 Curtain Road ( not Brick Lane but in the general vicinity)

Vintage bathing suits - This Shop Rocks! 131 Brick Lane

Men's - Brick Lane Thrift Store, 68 Sclater Street

Fashion craze of the second - Beyond Retro, as listed above (exploiting tomorrow's trends is Beyond Retro's speciality, rows and rows of what is deemed to be en vogue in the east are pushed to the front of the store periodically resulting in a bevy of homogenous individuals).

BYOB

If you are looking to go out for a fun, tasty yet affordable dinner Tay Do Cafe, one of the many Vietnamese BYOB restaurants located on Kingsland Road is a fantastic venue to consider. The massive menu boasts a great range of vegetarian, fish and meat options (personal favourites are the tofu and bean sprout udon noodles/tamarind tofu and crab and sweetcorn soup). The restaurant is not licensed to serve alcohol so you are welcome to bring your own. However, they will charge a 50p corkage fee which in comparison to other BYOB's in the area, is relatively cheap. The restaurant is always jam-packed, yet even on a Friday night expect waiting time to be minimal...five to ten minutes at most. Tay Do Cafe's bright green walls and plastic furnishings leave much to be desired in the way of decor but ultimately this is a negligible factor as the bustling atmosphere and delicious dishes steal the show.

Tay Do Cafe, 65 Kingsland Road, E2 8AG

Get Krump!

If you're not familiar with the term 'krump', then you have obviously been hiding under a rock for the past few years.  Krumping (also clown dancing or clowning) is a style of dance that originated in the African-American community of South Central Los Angeles, California. It involves elaborate face-painting and freestyle dance moves usually performed in competition with other crews. Krumping really started to capture the world's attention with the release of the movie 'Rize', a documentary exploring the physically astounding Los Angeles worlds of clowning and krumping.  If you haven't had the pleasure of seeing this visually stunning and award-winning movie, now is the perfect time to do so, as Rich Mix is hosting not only a screening of the movie, but also a master class in krumping afterwards!  This fantastic event is taking place this Friday, July 31 at 1:30 PM and costs only 5 pounds for both the movie and the class... just in time to impress the weekend crowds with your new dance moves.  For more information, go here.

Why Don't You... Sing Some Motown?

Tonight, that's right I said tonight, the Vibe Bar is putting on a very special evening of karaoke.  Now, this isn't the kind of karaoke where people with headache-inducing vocals sing along to lackluster backing music, no indeed.  This karaoke has a 6 piece live funk band backing you to all the Motown classics.  The evening, suitably entitled 'Soul Brew', only requires you to sign up to sing and a small 4 pound investment.  So get your fellow Supremes ready and start practicing those moves!

Much like this snazzy dwelling on Columbia Road, we too have a correspondence portal!


neighborhood.shoreditch@googlemail.com


We promise to respond...so start sending your views/ musings/ opinions/ questions/ suggestions/ jokes/ screenplays/ troubles our way!

Coming Up...

While many of you out there may be utterly fed up with the amount of media attention surrounding the late and great Michael Jackson, we at In the Neighborhood (well myself, at least), have not yet reached the point of complete aggravation.  That being said, the Truman Brewery together with HF Contemporary Art are hosting a Michael Jackson tribute at Draywalk Gallery starting this Friday, July 24.  The exhibition will have original new works by international gallery artists, as well as a concert put on by the Esben Tvalje trio with vocalist Lydia Jenkins.  I think we could all stand to pay tribute to MJ one last time, no?