Feel the funk: Douglas Blyde checks out Dan’s in Dalston
For a choice of more than 800 different, unconventional wines, make your way to Dan’s wine bar in Dalston. Housed behind a raw, unfinished frontage within a former architect’s office, and dotted with Persian rugs, the spot was born from Dan Long’s Natty Boy Wines online bottle shop.
The spot is ‘egalitarian’ at heart, says its founder. ‘You can either buy bottles to take home or drink them in at a £15 mark-up, which is the same for any size bottle, meaning you pay at least half the price of what they would cost in central London.’
Wines such as the naturally effervescent Nero d’Avola Piggy Pop Pét-Nat from South Australia, and from volcanic Sicily, Frank Cornelissen’s Munjebel Rosso from ungrafted vines at high altitudes, are divine served with a phenomenal selection of Swiss cheeses, artisan pâtés, bread by Jumi in Newington Green and a soundtrack of Detroit house by the likes of Jo Carter which, says Long, ‘sucks you into the energy of the room.’
Come the summer, Long, who was born to an English father and Australian mother, expects guests to spill outside the site to enjoy wines made with minimal intervention. However, on account of these being ‘technically correct’, guests can have confidence when taking a boundary pushing journey across continents via the glass. Cheers to that.
