Get forked up at Tony Hornecker’s incredible Pale Blue Door.
London’s greatest kicks can often be found down the city’s scuzziest back alleys. And so it is with this incredible supper club location, which you’ll find down a particularly uninviting Haggerston back street.
So far, so sketchy. But if you can find the pale blue door in question, you’ll step right into a visual wonderland.
You’re entering the home of artist and set designer Tony Hornecker, where he stores abandoned sets, kitschy detritus, or as he puts it, ‘the innards of his soul’; the combined effect makes it one of the most visually arresting places for dinner we can think of. (You don’t get inflatable bananas nailed to disco balls at Berners bloody Tavern, do you?)
The incredible surroundings, however, are only the stage for the theatrics ahead – supper clubs and private dining events with a difference. Service is led by drag and cabaret acts that bring ribald, raucous energy to proceedings. It looks like this:
Before progressing into a bit of this…
And even some of this:
It’s relentless lip-sync glitter-bomb genius: one particularly impressive performance we saw involved the cooking of a real-life pancake on a camping stove, while simultaneously lip-syncing to a 90s pop medley for the ages.
While the razzle-dazzle might feel all-encompassing, there is actually some food to eat, too! Our three-course dinner featured a Panzanella salad, a main of rare roast beef with greens (‘handpicked by a shirtless cowboy’) and potatoes, and a peachy dessert; a half-bottle of wine is also thrown in with the cover charge. And the food is, like, fine! Pretty nice, actually, although obviously slightly incidental to the mesmerising power-ballad action.
Dinner at the Door is, alas, a rare treat; for small dining groups, the next available evenings are in June 2018, when Horndecker will be aiming to fill a Glastonbury-sized hole in Londoners’ hearts while the festival takes a year off.
However, for the popular kids among you, there is the option to hire the entire venue, which seats 25 – 45 people at £50 a head. It’s a brilliant place for a memorable birthday blowout, or perhaps a deeply left-field outing for your colleagues – with the run of the entire place, and what’s best described as a ‘permissive’ atmosphere, there’s really no telling what shenanigans you’ll all be fired for on Monday…
So be brave, book now, and expect the unexpected. The Pale Blue Door: you can’t try it ’til you’ve knocked it.
Location: 5 Glebe Road, E8 4BD. Nearest station is Haggerston. See it on Google Maps.
Opening hours: opens infrequently, next dates are June 27 – July 1; alternatively, book the entire place for you and your squad. Booking is absolutely essential.
Price: £50 per person, for three courses and half a bottle of wine.
More information: from their website.