With long embedded memories of North London’s loftiest village being home to chains like Cafe Rouge, Caffe Nero and Pain Quotidien, now it seems to be gently reinventing itself with a more captivating range of independent cafes, pubs and stores. Or maybe we just haven’t been in an age.
Last Sunday,we swung by three very different boozers to see what was going on. That former Pain Quotidien is now independent pub The Crown, the latest from the small Northern Pubs Company, who also run the Haverstock in Belsize Park, the Old White Bear in Hampstead and the Prince Albert in Primrose Hill.
It’s a nice 360-degree turn for a building that long housed – you guessed it – The Rose & Crown.
The Crown’s sunken back garden (above) proved a surprisingly shady oasis on a hot lunchtime, while its single main room lets the afternoon sun in at the front, with cosily crepuscular corners at the back.
It was almost empty, which was fine for us, but we did worry that, if the denizens of Highgate don’t support their lovely high street, who will? They also serve excellent Yard Sale Pizza (read more on that here) and host live music.
After a couple of pints in the garden – and an impromptu chat with a friendly local dog owner or two – we decided to visit that slither of a boozer, N6 favourite The Duke’s Head.
Highgate game-changer when it opened in 2013 as a craft beer bar, nowadays, as self-styled “Country Honky Tonk Bar”, its quirky interior is crammed with framed photos and posters, with servers in stetsons behind the bar and punters channelling fifties Americana.
Rack City Ribs is the kitchen residency much raved about by none other than Jay Rayner – so for us it was a no-brainer to demolish a few dishes (pictured above). The six-hour smoked pork ribs on applewood were stickily moreish, the dark glaze lick-the-plate-clean delicious, sliced chilli and spring onion adding bite.
And a brisket bap was so packed with eight-hour slow-cooked short rib (on beechwood) that it was piling out of its demi-brioche bun, especially when we tried to cut it into two to share. Special mention goes to exceptional chips – both crunchy and fluffy – while a cooling slaw proved a gentle antidote to the richness of the meat.
Of course we now needed to walk all this off, so our last stop before descending the hill back to our urban reality was The Wrestlers on North Road, a pub I hadn’t been to for years.
Dating (astonishingly) back to 1547, its atmospheric panelled interior, candlelit even by day, not to mention original 16th century fireplace, still feels unpretentious.
Even the roasts, which we watched fly out at around the £15 mark, looked huge and well-priced for this most affluent corner of London.
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Highgate? She’s still worth that steep climb, or, if you prefer, a tube ride up and then a post-prandial roll back downhill – not forgetting to gawp at the panoramic view of London unfurling beyond.
Kentishtowner turns 15 soon – which (sorry to brag) isn’t too shabby for an independent food & culture site run on almost zero resources. And, as usual, a billion thanks to those who donate. But to put it into perspective, that’s just under 5% of readers in the last year. If you’re sitting on the fence a bit, maybe just ping over a couple of quid? After all, that’s cheaper than a coffee almost anywhere these days.
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