Spring at Seven!

So it seems that Spring has finally landed here in Brixton!! (Let’s hope it sticks around). The curtains are down from the front of the bar and the sun is pouring in.

As if that wasn’t enough reason to celebrate, we’ve got also got the mayday bank holiday weekend. 3 days off!!! We’ll be open 9am-11.30pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday and we’ve got a few treats lined up for you. (Also just to let you know the whole of Brixton Market & Village is closed on the Monday.)

Following the success of our Easter egg martini, we’ve created a very special Apricot rum punch! It is available all day Sunday at the ever-friendly price of a fiver! Regardless of the weather this will make you feel like it’s the height of summer!

As if that wasn’t enough to get your mouth watering, the wonderful A Grape Night In girls will be coming round in the afternoon with free tasters of some Spring time Spanish wine.

And what about the food? Don’t worry.  Our Catalan chef will be cooking up a fresh seafood and chicken paella at the front of the bar from 2pm.  But once it’s gone it’s gone!

A bargain at just £4.50

Or Paella and a glass of Sangria for £7

Finally we would also just like to say a huge thank you to everyone that came down last week and had a cocktail. By donating 10p from every cocktails last week, we were able to make a donation to Jonny (one of our owners) who was running the Manchester marathon for Bliss Charity. He raised a massive £1,131.50 and here’s a pic of his medal.

That’s not Jonny by the way!!!

Easter Teaser!!

We thought we’d give you a little update of our new Spring Menu as well as a teaser for our Easter treats!

As an Easter Special we’ll be doing a Mini Egg Martini made up of Mozart Chocolate Liquer, Spanish Veterano Brandy, Milk, Custard and topped with a sprinkling of Mini Eggs, available from Thursday until Sunday.

We’re open Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9am for Brunch all the way through to 11:30pm, we are closed on Easter Monday.

Despite it not really feeling like Spring we’ve had a brilliant response to our new Spring cocktails as well as our first Sharing Cocktail!

We worked hard to come up with nine new cocktails using fresh fruit, interesting flavours and imaginative combinations. As always our menu cocktails are £5 so a huge amount of value there too!

Our Sharing Spring Rum punch is a mix of light & dark rums mixed with Guava & Apple Juice and Fresh Blackberries & Raspberries, perfect for larger parties on busy evening.

Another first on this menu is a home infused Gin & Tonic cocktail that continues to infuse until you open it. Using a traditional home brew capping machine we combine Dill & Cucumber chunks with Boxer Gin and Tonic Water. Sealed with a cap and not opened until you’ve bought it, fantastically refreshing for the warmer days (that are on the way!!!!!).

Our Creme Brûlée Martini is by far the most popular new cocktail, a combination of Amarula Liquer, Liqor Cuarenta y Tres and Milk & Custard Mix, topped with a Cigarillo biscuit.

As always we theme one of our cocktails around our Brixton background, this time round we’ve been inspired into a Windrush Sour. Chris Blackwell’s Jamaican Rum shaken with our home infused Scotch Bonnet Vodka, Peach Bitters, Free Egg White & Lemon.

With Summer on the horizon (far away horizon) we’ll be looking to shake up our art space upstairs, please spread the word and anybody interested can email us with market@sevenatbrixton.com any proposals or ideas.

Spring Forward

We’re busy wishing Winter away and are well underway planning our new Spring dishes and drinks, we thought we’d slip a few of our ideas our into public domain.

After an enjoyable Winter Menu we’ll have to say goodbye to the 9 of our existing cocktails, please vote at the bottom for the cocktail you’d like to stay on the menu for Spring!!

We’ve looked towards refreshing, floral, herbaceous flavours and classic combinations for our Spring Cocktails. We’ve also tracked down some great new spirits and bitters! From a twisted Old Fashioned with Rye, Chocolate Bitters, Butterscotch & Frangelico to a Thai Julep made up of Bourbon, Koko Kanu, Lychee, Lemongrass, Mint & Ginger, we’re very excited about the menu and have got some great new ideas using fresh ingredients (as always) and a good range of artisanal spirits & bitters. See below for a few more of our inventions that should be launching early March.

The change in season will see a few tweaks to our food offerings. We’ve already introduced a new selection of cheeses to the cheeseboard. A fantastic Villarejo Manchego in a Rosemary coated rind, a light Asturian blue in La Peral and finally the Murcia al Vino,  a harder cheese with a red wine coated rind. We’re looking towards the coastlines of Galicia & Andalusia for Sardines, Calamari & anchovies. As well as experimenting with some new Pintxos ingredients. Our Brunch offering will continue with the Full Spanish Breakfast proving a hit, as well as the Bagels!

We’ll be looking for new artists for our upstairs spaces from March so please please spread the word and any budding artists pop by or drop us an email with ideas!!

For those that have been on the moon, we’re now open until 11:30pm Tuesday to Sunday so more opportunity to head down for a drink and a bite to eat!

salud!

Hangovers, detox & retox

And so as the festive season draws to a close, our waistbands widened and our credit card limits are, well …… limited, at Seven we have a look at how we can make this typically tiresome month that bit more fun.

The first few weeks of January is always a hazy time – those Christmas sherries have taken their toll, but we’re not quite ready to hit the gym (that new year’s resolution can wait a couple of weeks right?) Firstly we have to get through this hangover. And so we return to our old friend the Bloody Mary. Now we don’t create drinks for the faint hearted so even the classic comes strongly spiced with a dash of fino sherry! But if you want to go more adventurous, you could always try the bloody mojito, bloody martini or red snapper. These start at a very January friendly £5.

So, the hangover’s sorted and our heads are that bit clearer it’s now detox mode. 6am starts every morning, quick run round brockwell park and then off for breakfast. Regardless of how good that Open bagel of Chorizo, morcilla, fried egg & pimenton looks, there are always the healthy options on our brunch menu. Fresh fruit salad, and porridge should keep the guilt away through mid-January.

For lunch it doesn’t have to be all homemade allioli & chilli sauce on fried patatas bravas, or cured Iberico bellota, you could always try a flight of salads, homemade Sopa del Dia or our slow roasted vegetable escalivada.

Also this January, we have paid particular attention to our non-alcoholic cocktail options. Just because you’re not boozing, you should still be able to drink with style. Non-alcoholic Macchiato martini is a must for any winter time detoxer or you could try the more refreshing 6 bar blues – blueberries, thyme, cranberry & soda water!

However no NewYear’s resolution would be right without a  slow demise come the 20th of January. Remember there’s always next year! But that doesn’t mean there’s money to burn and so our finance friendly £5 cocktails should be able to carry you through until February. Sit amongst some of our new artwork upstairs and warm up with an Haute Toddy or lust after summer again with a Pisco based Peruvian nephew.

Aswell as price conscious cocktails, our good friend’s A Grape Night In have jumped on the cost-cutting bandwagon and dropped prices for their wine tasting at our bar this month to £10 each for a 2 hour expert wine tasting based on getting back to basics tasting. You can book this through our website.

If you can’t even hold on until the 20th for your old festive habits to sneak back in then join us on the weekend of the 5th and 6th where we will be celebrating Los Reyes Magos – Feast of the 3 Kings. In Spain this is bigger than Christmas and we will have our own Rosco de Reyes (think massive donut filled with sweets & cream!!) which we will be giving out free samples of until it runs out.

Looking forward to seeing you down here. If you need to book at all then please just follow this link to our contact page.

Seven

‘Tis the Season

As the weather grows colder and Macaulay Culkin appears on our screens every Sunday afternoon, we can’t help but notice that, as it does every year, Christmas is coming hurtling round the corner to us and it’s time for us at Seven to get a bit festive. However, never ones to stick to the obvious choices, there’ll be no turkey & stuffing sandwiches or debauched office parties here.

No no no, this year we want to bring a bit of Spanish Christmas tradition in to the heart of Brixton Market. We did have to be a bit selective about the traditions though, we didn’t think anyone would want the famous caganer sitting next to them while they are trying to enjoy our Festive Haute Toddy Cocktail or Macchiato Martini.

Instead we have been tirelessly storming ideas about what makes Christmas fantastic from Brixton to Bilbao. And luckily for us (and you!) food and drink are at the heart of both.

Christmas is also about giving and sharing time with friends so our Christmas celebrations this year are centred around our Seven days of Christmas.

On every day, from the 17th-23rd December, we have got a different Christmas treat to give away. Each morning we’ll tweet about what the treat is that day. (follow us @sevenatbrixton) Don’t worry it’s not so much seven swans a swimming, more seven gallons of cider mulling!!

On Sunday 16th December we will be getting together with our neighbours Casa Morita to help raise money for a couple of our favourite charities; local homeless charity – The Robes Project and the Charlotte Miller Art Project – supporting disadvantaged children worldwide. We will be giving away some churros & mulled cider and Casa Morita will be offering hot chocolate & kids activities. All you do is make a donation for whatever you think it’s worth. All the profit from the day will go towards offering shelter to homeless people over the Christmas Period.

Of course though we wouldn’t want to forget the adults in our time of Christmas giving ! So on Wednesday 19th December, leave the kids at home (never unattended) and join us for our Christmas Party. From 7pm we will have a Cava reception and there will be a one off Christmas Cocktail menu. Just tweet us to let us know your coming and we will put you on the guestlist. And of course Christmas Jumpers are a must for dresscode!!

We have some great addidtions to our regular menus for the whole season too. You can buy mulled cider by the flask, we have some warm winter salads such as our Girolle & Chestnut Mushrooms cooked in Fino Sherry & Cream or Roast Pumpkin with ground Habas Fritas & Picos D’Europa blue cheese. We also have our festive flavoured Haute Toddy cocktail with Amaretto and gingerbread syrup, served with a Stroodwaffel garnish. And for the morning after, pop in and see if you can beat our Full Spanish; Chorizo, Morcilla, Fried Eggs Pimenton spiced Baked Beans and toast all served with a coffee of your choice. These are all available on our regular menus throughout the whole month.

Also if you weren’t aware yet, we have been given new opening times by the market over the month of December and will be open every night until 11.30pm apart from Monday (where we still need to close at 6pm). On Christmas Eve the market closes at 5pm and we re-open on 27th December at 9am. On New Year’s Eve, we have to close at 6pm and then back open as usual on 2nd January.

Looking forward to seeing you all over the Christmas Period. Follow us on twitter for regular updates of what’s going on.

Merry Christmas,

Seven at Brixton

Summer is over, Long Live Autumn & Winter!

With the change of the seasons comes an exciting opportunity to do a few things with our food and drink.

Starting with the kitchen, we’ve managed to get hold of some fantastic Iberico Ham, which is available by the plate. The ham is cured for 4 years and comes from pigs that are solely reared on acorns for the last 4 months of their lives, its a good end to a good life and the flavours are reflected in the ham. We’re really happy we’ve been able to source the ham and at £7 a plate its a good value for money dish too!

We’ve also moved with the seasons and introduced a new Pumpkin & Picos D’Europa salad! Roasted pumpkin tossed in peppery rocket leaves with crumblings of our favourite blue cheese and crushed refried broad beans. A great match with the soft pumpkin, crunchy beans and tangy Picos D’Europa. It’ll be a staple for the next few months and hopefully get you through the colder months.

In a similar need for warmth we’ve swapped our summery Gazpacho with Avocado salad for a mix of Girolles & Chestnut mushrooms in a creamy Fino sauce. We think its a great dish for winter and a solid option for our veggie guests.

Our Summer drinks menu has also come to an end, back come a few favourites from last year (Our Dark Beer, Alhambra Negra, Flasks of Mulled Cider & the Haute Toddy – A mix of Lemon, Amaretto, Gingerbread Syrup served in a steaming mug with a Stroopwafel (word of the day)). We’ve thought long and hard about this menu and tried to use Autumnal flavours & themes, think Rhubarb, Blueberries, Thyme, Caramel, Apple, Chocolate, the list goes on!!

With regard to our usual theatrical input we’ve got some exciting new toys; chef’s torch, perfume atomiser- (you’ll have to come down to see what they’re used for!) and our favourite The Smoking Gun.

This Autumn’s signature cocktail is the Brooklyn to Brixton, a mix of Apple, Ginger, SW4Gin (if we could get SW9 we would!), Apricot Brandy and infused with Apple Shisha. The Cosmopolitan, Negroni, Sidecars, Dark & Stormy have all been given our personal touch and we’ve introduced a couple of inventions – The 12 Bar Blues, Macchiato Martini and the aptly named Peruvian Nephew. As for the cocktail thats stayed on you’ll have to come down to find out what that is!

For those of you who haven’t visited for a while we’ve got some heaters installed downstairs now to warm the room and our artwork has moved round upstairs! Think Miro meets Picasso meets Formica for one of the rooms! Hope to see you soon! Cheers x

Machiato Martini

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It has been an exciting few months for Seven. Our summer menu has has grown in status due to the popularity of classic cocktails such as the Caipirinha, our own inventions like the Guns of Brixton and the ongoing success of the twisted classic; our Ginger beer and Basil Mojito. As the weather changes, so should we.  Without spilling the (Coffee) beans too much, we thought that we should give you all a chance to sample a little treat from our upcoming menu.

Over the past few weeks we have had an increasing number of guests asking for coffee related cocktails, the most popular being the Espresso Martini. With this in mind and the imminent arrival of winter, we decided to use an existing product and make a few changes to it.

The Macchiato – Similar to an Espresso and Cortado but has foam on top instead of being mixed with milk like the latter.

The Martini – A short cocktail in a cool glass, with a history so vast that books have been written about it.

Enter the Macchiato Martini – A shot of coffee mixed with Vanilla vodka and hints of caramel makes this a winner for the cold weekends. The most exciting part about this martini is the different temperatures you feel when drinking it. Staying true to the elements of a Macchiato, we heat up milk so it becomes a dense foam  and spread it across the drink with a coffee bean garnish. When drinking the Macchiato Martini, your lips first feel the sensation of the warm foam and afterwards the ice cold flavours of Coffee, Vanilla and Caramel surprise you.

As a treat, we are giving away samples of this new creation from today until Sunday 23rd September, before 7pm each day. To make it more interesting there is a bit of a challenge:

Just let our staff know who said the following quote:

“I may run for the office of President. Gimme a bottle and a glass and I’ll get America off its ass.”

So come down with your mates (there are no limits, but only one freebie each!) and enjoy a little something on us.

Batman loves Pintxo

I think it is only fair to give a quick congrats to Team GB on their Olympic success, before I head straight into some fantastic news about Seven.

Coming third place with a staggering medal tally of 65, of which 29 Gold makes it semi excusable to have stayed indoors or enjoy Hyde park for the last few weeks. Now that all the running and throwing is over, its time to head back to our daily routine of creating, testing and drinking new and exciting cocktails…..some one has to do it! To include our guests in this hard life that we struggle with day after day, we came up with this great idea to make bespoke cocktails to any one having a birthday party at our bar. Just tell us what you like and we will create it and you get to name it and have bragging rights about it all night.

So the Olympics was great, but what’s just as great are our new opening times. We are now open until 21:30 on Wednesdays and Sundays. This of course means that we have much more time to feed the hungry and quench many a thirsty throat. Running parallel (see what I did there?) with our opening times is the ongoing success of our new Blood Mary menu. Just ask the bartender or waiter/ess and they will make you one of a number of our new Blood Mary’s with fantastic garnishes to boot!!

Our new Sangria comes in Red Wine or Rose and is made fresh every day with an abundance of fruit infusions. We have sold so many over the past week that we have decided to create a White Wine Sangria. This creating and tasting of Sangria will be my burden to carry over the next week……

A few new dishes on our food menu includes Orange stuffed Gordal Olives with Oregano and a delicious Dessert Platter made up of Churros with Chocolate sauce, Cinnamon biscuits, Tarte de Santiago Almond Cake and Chocolate covered figs!!

So other than the new Batman movie, every one is talking about Seven and all the new changes. That’s it from me for this week. See you all over the weekend.

COME RAIN OR SUNSHINE.

Its mid July and Brixton is shaking of the wet weather. On the up-side, it gives every one an excuse to stay inside and eat, drink and be merry. Gloomy weather has never, and will never override our natural instinct to be social and have loads of fun. With showers predicted all weekend, it seems that history will repeat itself yet again. Lucky for you, we at Seven pride ourselves in anti gloomy weather cocktails, food and entertainment. Take for instance our wide variety of board games…my favorite is Battleship, but it seems our guests almost cue up for Guess Who and Snakes and Ladders to mention but a few. Now picture the scene…..Its rainy and windy outside, you and your loved one or bunch of mates, run in from the cold and stroll into Brixton market. Where do you go? Yes, that’s correct.

So know you guys have taken a seat and Guess Who is out on the table. Glen ( by far our most eccentric staff member and cocktail genius), takes your drinks order and casually mention that our Blood Mary menu is launching on the 21st of July. He then mentions that we will be doing a soft launch on Sunday the 15th of July. You are so amazed at this that you immediately look for an excuse to come drink the Blood Mary’s on Sunday. Glen says ” Why don’t you bring all your friends over on Saturday night, the tubes are down all weekend so just pop over and stay local. We will look after you all night and then in the morning when you’re feeling a bit rough ( not gloomy! ), we will look after you again”. All this news about the great weekend ahead makes you so hungry that you buy some warm Churros and Chocolate sauce. After the Cocktails and Churros, you ring all your friends and invite them down to Seven this weekend and on Monday you tell every one that you had the best weekend ever!

Have a great week and see you over the weekend!

ITS GETTING HOTTER AT SEVEN

Regardless of whether you are nursing a massive hangover or simply enjoy having the luxury of drinking alcoholic beverages at questionable hours of the day, we have created a Bloody Mary menu to cater for all the specific needs of our guests.

When it comes to a good Bloody Mary or Red Snapper ( A Gin Mary, for the less enlightened), being specific is a must. Any bartender that is worth his weight in gold will tell you that each client needs to be catered for on an individual basis. This especially rings true when it comes to our favourate spicy drink. Whether it is the base spirit, garnish, seasoning,shaken, stirred, long, short, ice, no ice, port, wine, celery or carrot to name a few, an individual approach is paramount. The most important question is off course the level of spice. From the very tame “Virgin Mary with no spice please” to the almighty “Extra shot of vodka with extra Tabasco please mate”….we have seen it all. And this is exactly what we at Seven had in mind when creating this menu except we’re taking it further. A lot further….

Prawns, ham, Scotch Bonnets and green foam….that is all I can say for now. We have to keep some of it a secret until the very last minute.

The menu launch date will be posted soon, so now you can come to Seven for a night out and come back in the morning for a cure. I might have one with you!