A dinner that leaves you not just laughing, but also learning
Levan is a new restaurant in Peckham, south-east London, named after the Paradise Garage DJ Larry Levan, who found fame in late-70s New York. Should you wish to experience a flash of this legendary dancefloor’s ambience, I recommend drinking three, four or even five glasses of skin-contact Cosimo Maria Masini, then visiting Levan’s bathroom. It is a softly lit, inkily painted, one-person water closet with a speaker pumping out buoyant electronic, post-disco and garage tunes. It’s like being front and centre for a live 2am 1981 performance by Sylvester.
I’m not certain if this works without the wine. Neither am I certain that any of the late Jonathan Gold’s Pulitzer prize-enticing restaurant critiques started with his views on the loos, but I am a firm believer that a restaurant is almost as much about mood as it is food, and that the team behind Levan – chef Nicholas Balfe and his front-of-house partners Mark Gurney and Matt Bushnell – are engineers of the new wave of highly relaxed yet incredibly drilled hospitality.
Continue reading...