FOOD: the new PM’s go-to dining spot
When asked on the longrunning Table Manners podcast if he had any “go-to spots”, longstanding local Keir Starmer raved about a certain Highgate Road trattoria.
“Yeah, there’s a place called Rossella up the road, which is run by a friend of ours. And it’s fantastic. If we’re not eating at home we will sometimes go there on a Friday. And again that’s where Vic and her dad can get together and where her sister will come with her daughter so that’s that’s just a really locally-based straightforward Italian restaurant. That is probably our go-to if we’re going to go out.”
Rossella has survived where so many others have sadly gone – and long been a locals’ secret, with its easygoing southern Italian cooking headed up by charismatic owner Luca Meola. “As a community restaurant we’ve a long relationship with many of our local Kentish Towners,” he said. “Keir and his family have long been regulars and we are delighted for him and his family. He will make a wonderful PM.”
A traditional trattoria in the truest sense, Rossella is inspired by the family’s Neapolitan origins – and the original restaurant they had of the same name back in 1960. It was Luigi Meola, Luca’s father, who brought his love for Italian food here after moving from Benevento, near Naples, in 1978. He also called his first restaurant in Ilford Rossella in 1985 (no longer there); his son Luca took over the Highgate Road unit in 2011. And the rest is, of course, history.
FREE: Parliament Hill summer bandstand concert
There’s not much better than a free summer alfresco bash, and the Heath & Hampstead Society’s upcoming Natural Aspect Summer Concert 24 takes place this Sunday July 21st (1pm-5pm). Once again it’s at Parliament Hill Bandstandand is, as always, free of charge.
Expect BBQ, cocktails, burgers, hot dogs, ice creams, and cocktails (from the Heath Café), circus workshops, ice cream and dancing – courtesy of local DJ ledge Dan Carrier. It’s also the biggest free live music concert of the summer on Hampstead Heath: last year saw over 1500 people come together.
Enjoy a diverse range of performances including the Bengali band Bangla Shur, the Jamaican Ska rhythms of The Estimators, the Irish folk tunes of The Spud Peelers, and the soulful sounds of John Etheridge and Vimala Rowe. Local DJ Dan Carrier will keep the energy high with joyous music between sets.
COMMUNITY: Torriano Meeting Place: the 40th anniversary
Torriano Meeting House started its four-decade-long journey in NW5 when, back in the early 1980s, poet John Rety and his partner Susan Johns took over a decrepit house at 99 Torriano Avenue and turned it into a hub of creativity. John Pilgrim wrote, in his 2010 obituary for John in the Guardian: “The readings were an astonishing success, drawing in poets and public from all over the country.”
Camden council contributed £10,000 a year to support the Torriano Meeting House. When, eventually, funding cuts forced them to withdraw the grant, the council offered Rety an Epic (Eminent Persons in Camden) award. He indignantly refused, regarding it as a bribe to stop him complaining about the loss of his grant.
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To mark 40 years, the Meeting House is launching It Happened Here, a participatory performance project created by theatre-maker Gustavo Dias-Vallejo.
Residents of Kentish Town are invited to recall meaningful events in their lives that happened in specific places in the area. “We will walk together, share stories, create a map and have a photograph taken,” he says. “In the image, each person holds a sheet of paper with a sentence that summarizes the story they share with that place.”
The project will be exhibited at TMH in September. To take part contact gusballejo@gmail.com
DRINK: Colonel Fawcett’s Gin Day
Finally, the sun will come for gin day, right? If not, you can always cosy up within this Victorian pub’s elegant interior. This year it’s the twelfth annual Gin Day at Randolph Street’s backstreet boozer and it takes place on Saturday 17th August. The idea is simple: you wander round a “gin marketplace” tasting various gins from different stalls, all included in ticket price of £10. Grab your tix here.
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