Andy Mossack relishes a tasting menu at the supperclub.tube, dining in an original Victoria Line tube carriage.
Call me an old softie, but I’ve always enjoyed seeing something historic being repurposed and utilised for modern use. Doesn’t matter if it’s a building, a piece of furniture, or as in this case, a former carriage from London’s underground network. Somehow, I connect with it on an emotional level, knowing it has a new lease of life and deep down somewhere it’s thrilled to bits.
I know, weird right?
Yet here I am on a recent Saturday evening, sitting in a 60s-era former Victoria Line tube carriage full up with diners enjoying a six-course tasting menu, and thinking to myself, this old girl must be loving it. Oh dear, here I go again.
But let’s face it, it was a stroke of genius finding this London Underground train carriage banished to the Walthamstow Pump Room Museum and transforming it into a fine dining venue.
Yet that is exactly what Nick Atkins did in 2018 to expand his supper club business from his Islington home. Cue Bea Maldonado Carreño, a talented Columbian chef who earned her chops in numerous well-known London restaurants specialising in Latin American fare before teaming up with Nick to run the supperclub.tube kitchen.
The carriage interior has been adapted to house a mix of bijou tables-for-two and shared tables of twelve, some using individual chairs or the original bench seats which are so familiar with today’s tube passengers.
But this is as far from Victoria Line rush hour sardines as you can get. The tables are dressed with pressed linens, fine silverware and glassware, there’s soft music playing and the atmosphere is distinctly foodie.
Bea makes a guest appearance as the meal service is about to begin to provide some background on her brigade and the various roots of her Latin American menu: a mixture of Ecuadorian, Peruvian, Colombian and Mexican flavours from recipes passed down through generations.
Whilst the bar is in the carriage, the kitchen, where the magic happens, is tucked away in the main building, so plenty of toing and froing ensues, but it’s a slick operation, nonetheless.
After a welcome prosecco (included in the price of the dinner) our first course is delivered; Mexican gorditas. Blue, white, and red cornbread patties on a bed of leaves topped with spicy pulled pork and a chipotle and achiote sauce. Tart pickled apples completed the ensemble. Very corn-centric and moreish. A great start.
A quinoa risotto follows, lying beside a generous slab of butternut squash and topped with pickled red onion and kale with dabs of miso. An excellent combo, if a little salty from the miso for my palate.
By now, the wines have been flowing a while and the chatter level has risen considerably. With the raised audio I now know why these old carriages rattled so loudly.
In advance of the third course, Bea is back to give us a short briefing on Ecuadorian ceviche and her love for this lime-infused staple. And it doesn’t disappoint. Lime cured cod, spring onion, heritage tomatoes, coriander, apple tomatoes and a red pepper chilli leche de tigre sauce, combine to make this a citrusy stand out dish. Some bread on the side helps me to mop up the rest of the sauce.
Bea is back before the main course extolling the importance of potatoes in the Peruvian diet. And then gives us perfect examples as it is delivered triumphantly to our tables. Two slices of perfectly pink saddle of lamb with a roasted jacket potato side filled with yellow and purple mash and sweetheart cabbage.
But it’s the Peruvian ocota sauce delivered in an individual jug that takes centre stage. A smooth green sauce made from yellow and mirasol peppers with onion and garlic which we pour over the lamb and potato. If only I had some more bread…..
The whole carriage is very merry now. New friends made over the shared tables and contented looking couples refilling spent wine glasses makes for delightful people watching.
We’re on the home straight now as a pre-dessert pops out. A delightful spoon of lulo fruit parfait, (Colombia’s version of a tomato crossed with lime) and sprinkled with coconut snow. A perfect palate cleanser.
Finally, dessert. Entitled ‘a few of my favourite things’ it’s a combo of chocolate cake, and chocolate & coffee mousse, uchava (Peruvian physalis) and pineapple compote, with a couple of dulce de leche wontons. Our neighbouring table was practically licking the plate clean so desperate were they to finish any tiny morsel they might have missed.
Bea has certainly got delivery down to a fine art, and it’s also wrapped up with love and affection for Latin American cuisine.
Eating in a tube train carriage is obviously the novelty, and that could so easily be an opportunity to simply offer cheap and forgettable food. Fortunately, at supperclub.tube it is quite the opposite, it is the food that’s the headliner here, and the train carriage a support act, even though it’s a genuine piece of nostalgia, and got my repurposing emotions going.
I might be showing my age here, but East 17 put Walthamstow on the pop map in the 90s, perhaps supperclub.tube is carrying the culinary flag for it in the 2020s.
Images (C) supperclub.tube and Andy Mossack.
Tell me more about dining at supperclub.tube
supperclub.tube, Walthamstow Pumphouse Museum, South Access Road
London E17 8AX
supperclub.tube is open for dinner Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Dinner from £67pp including a 6-course tasting menu and a glass of prosecco. There is a vegetarian option available. To book a table please visit supperclub to make a reservation online.
