God save the Clam

There wasn’t a picnic hamper or glass of champers in sight at this Jubilee weekend pop-up. The brainchild of Pitt Cue Co & Rock Lobsta, this place was a huge success despite the hit-and-miss weather.

Making the most of the sunshine (to begin with), we hit town early starting with pitchers of cocktails at The Boundary Rooftop before heading over to London Fields for the main event; God Save the Clam, situated on a massive rooftop of an artist’s studio overlooking the park.

It was still dry when we arrived so we were directed to the punk’ed up Banshee Bar and swiftly handed a mug of tequila cocktail in a God Save the Clam mug which I was told I was allowed to take home. I was happy!

No sooner had we finished that when the heavens opened forcing us into a beach hut (gate-crashing this poor couples date).

Before too long, there were 8 of us huddled inside the hut. The tequila cocktails & beers were slipping down a treat so there was lots of good banter and we were all clearly refusing to let the weather dampen our mood, all of us eagerly anticipating the meal that was to come. And boy was it good…

We kicked off with the Pitt Cue Co's starter of sausage links, chargrilled lettuce, salty anchovy dressing and over-sized spicy croutons. Proper delish.

Then on to the main event from Rock Lobsta. Think beach buckets overflowing with steamed seafood including crayfish, clams, cockles, mussels and even crab claws complete with hammer to smash them open. All accompanied by dripping-covered potatoes, BBQ'ed corn and grilled sour dough.

Going....

going.....

gone!

It was messy business but totally worth it.

No sooner had the lovely waiters finished clearing away our buckets of empty shells then our desserts appeared. To be honest, by this point I wasn't sure I'd be able to manage it but one mouthful and there was no way I was leaving it; I think it was called a Screwball sundae but basically it was like an Eton Mess (my fave dessert) only with ice cream rather than cream, delicious crunchy meringue and strawberry sauce liberally poured over the top. Sooooooo goooooood.

Just when I thought it was all over and we were all gushing about how tasty it all had been, what good value it was, how stuffed we were and so on, a very friendly chap appeared with 8 glasses, a bottle of Jose Cuervo's traditionale tequila and a wooden board of halved tomatoes around the outside and pots of sugar, salt & pepper in the middle.

We were poured a very generous measure each then starting at one end, instructed to each help ourselves to a piece of tomato, dip it in each of the three pots and then either eat the tomato then drink the tequila or vice-versa. I've no idea which way around it went but I do remember that it was a lot nicer than your average tequila downed with the obligatory salt & lemon. It didn’t even make me shudder. Charlotte wasn’t so convinced though so rather than let a good shot of tequila go to waste, I did hers too!

"Ok babe I'll do yours too"

Char sensibly abstaining from the Tequila shots

Unfortunately the rain just didn’t let up throughout dinner. Such a shame as the other half of the rooftop was a dedicated dance floor complete with a DJ in a beach hut, what should have been one big rooftop party, just didn’t materialise.
 

We had to vacate the comfort of our hut to make space for the next wave of diners so they had somewhere dry to sit and enjoy their meal but that meant there was nowhere covered for us to carry on drinking so we begrudgingly left the other God Save the Clam-ers to it, and headed to the Pub on the Park next door.

Any foodies out there who like the sound of this, I found out about it on twitter from @Tweat_Up; ‘tweeting, meeting and eating in London’, and consequently @GodSaveTheClam whose tweet profile promises more to come!

The £40 ticket included a welcome cocktail (including the mug!), 3-course meal and a tequila to finish plus really good service and banter from the hosts.

I for one would most definitely go to one of their foodie events again, next time hopefully minus the wet weather.

xxx