by Tony Paley
There are mental health problems at the bottom of Green Lanes but
not of the usual kind. It’s the restaurants and cafes that
are causing concern.
Dragon On The Green, the cafe perched on the corner of Green Lanes
and Newington Green, is suffering a bad case of schizophrenia. An
ordinary greasy spoon caff by day, it’s a Thai take-away cum
restaurant at night. Directly opposite, the formerly up-market Cava
Bar is similarly troubled. The Gate, as it was renamed by its new
owners who also run Clissold Park Cafe, offers a lunchtime and evening
menu. Both are identical — it’s just the prices that
go up after dusk.
However, it’s the once thriving Mediterranean Breeze restaurant
a few doors away back over the road that has full-blown multiple
personality disorder. First the new owners transformed it into a
Mexican called El C Panchos. Now it is both Mexican and Meze restaurant
and bar on the same premises. Banners outside, meanwhile, offer
Sunday roast at £4.99 and tempt clientele with Live Latin
Jazz on Thursdays. A Mexican restaurant was unlikely to appeal to
the large Turkish community used to the Mediterranean-influenced
cuisine on offer previously, which is presumably why the new proprietors
have taken half a step back.
The Gate is comfortably the most pleasant of the three, having
stayed in the main with the stylish decor inherited from the Cava.
Both Dragon On The Green and the El C Panchos/Kumlaki Meze certainly
struggle in terms of atmosphere. All three eateries on Green Lanes
offer basic food in their own field and, at the prices, they are
not particularly great value for money. Contrast the Islington end
of Green Lanes with the newly gentrified Newington Green area around
the corner.
The Green was officially reopened following an extensive redevelopment
in the summer of 2004 and has given the area a major boost. Where
drunks once populated the benches, a playground and a cafe plus
refurbished seating areas, new landscaping and the narrowing of
the road around the Green has attracted families and a healthy passing
trade. Recent changes to shops, cafes and restaurants on or near
the Green have also been for the better, in contrast to the Green
Lanes strip.
Even the legendary Turkish grocers called Camlik, next door but
one to the old Mediterranean Breeze on Green Lanes, has been usurped
by new-kid-on-the-block on Newington Green Road in the shape of
Orcun Food. Camlik is not the shop it was under its new ownership,
and Orcun, which has been open just over a year, is now the best
local place to go for fruit and veg, basic and exotic, and Mediterranean
food. Orcun Corekci, who runs the shop with his father, says ‘this
is the best area we’ve been in’ after running similar
businesses in Brixton and Wood Green.
There’s a genuine French flavour at the Belle Epoque cafe
and patisserie at the top of the Green, where Eric Rousseau’s
success story enters its fourth year. He is ready to expand his
empire and has taken on a top French patisserie chef with plans
afoot for a new branch in Islington’s Upper Street which Rousseau
will call Nouvelle Epoque to reflect the more modern and minimalist
food he will serve up there.
At the original Newington Green base an Ice Cream bar will be open
this summer along with new ranges to reflect the changing seasons.
The restaurant known as Fifty Six, appropriately enough at No 56
Newington Green, continues to attract a healthy trade.
But venture further down Newington Green Road towards Islington
and it’s the Alma pub at No 59 that offers the clearest indication
of the gentrification of the area. Kirsty Valentine and Caroline
Hamlin, who met at the renowned Duke Of Cambridge pub in Islington
where Caroline was the original head chef, have transformed this
traditional boozer into a quality gastropub over the last three
years.
 Home-style
food with a modern British influence is how they describe what they
have on offer but don’t ask me for a typical meal as the daily
changing menu is full of surprises. Guinea Fowl pie, Grilled Tuna,
Courgettes, Lemon & Capers & Skordalia (Greek Style Garlic
Mash) and Roast Chicken Breast wrapped in Garlic Leaves & Pancetta
with Saffron Risotto were just some of what was on offer on a recent
menu. ‘We turn up and cook what we fancy’, says Kirsty.
‘Although we make sure we include the proper English staples,
too.’ There are comfy leather sofas and armchairs for those
just popping in for a drink at a pub that is trying to be a little
different in what it has to offer.
The Alma ran a bring-and-buy sale plus kids’ games day at
the late May Bank Holiday, and will be very much involved in Stokefest
on June 11. There’s a range of home-made marmalade plus chutneys
and pickles on sale and they offer a picnic service too, with three
courses from their eclectic menu on offer at £16 per head,
including cutlery, plates and bag.
Work is underway on new flats for 200 people on the site of the
Texaco garage on Green Lanes which was torn down recently. Those
moving in would be well advised to turn to the Green and not the
Lanes for their eating out and local provisions.
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