44-48 Clapham High Street,
Clapham,
London,
SW4 7UR
0872 148 3249
The ViewLondon Review
Let’s face it, if you live in Clapham then you’ve probably been here already; if you don’t, you’re unlikely to come down specially.
Nevertheless, there are times when one finds oneself hungry on someone else’s high street – and how can you differentiate between Clapham’s many respectable, hip-ish chain establishments without our help?
Yes, chains have taken over the capital. We have fought against them for years, comrades – but perhaps the time has come to accept them, and work with them. Some are horrid, some are all right; Bierodrome is one of the latter.
The beauty of a good chain is that if you’ve been to one and liked it, you’ll probably like the next one, and certainly, as an Islingtonian, I was confident that the Bierodrome on Clapham High Street would be about as acceptable as the one on Upper Street. With a chain, what you lose in originality, you gain in reliability.
In this case, you can rely on the following: stylish wood fittings; an intriguing range of beers (natch); an attractive and fairly priced food menu; good service. I can’t honestly say that there’s much more on offer – but then, who would want more?
You come to a place like this for mediocrity. Mediocrity is a very comforting quality, everybody knows that. There was a time when Bierodrome was a little more fashionable, but that time has passed; and as Jamie Oliver knows, familiarity breeds both contempt, and quite a lot of money.
We love to go to places that make us feel at home, but we don’t want to feel too much of a middle-class cliché and spend all our time in Café Rouge and All Bar One. That’s where Bierodrome comes in handy.
Yes, it’s predictable; yes, it would be better for London if we patronised independently-run venues; yes, these restaurants are boring after a while and you end up eating the same dish in every conceivable postcode; but you don’t care about that. Do you?