It’s been a busy old year for the team behind celebrated east London nightclub The Cause. After a long soft launch at its new space in London’s Docklands, the 3,000-capacity venue officially reopened in January. Not two months later, its owners also relaunched Peckham pub The Greyhound, a lively local with a great programme of live music and DJs popping up in its basement venue. And just five short months after that comes the gang’s third opening of 2024, this time in Dalston.
Named after a 1977 by NYC rockers Television, the Marquee Moon takes over a handsome two-floor corner boozer on Kingsland High Street formerly known as the Marquis of Landsdowne. As you’d expect given its owners’ credentials, this is another music-forward venue, with a 3am licence and a roster of The Cause regulars like Grace Sands and Jaye Ward playing from a prominent ground-floor DJ booth most days. Painted a bright shade of duck egg green outside, interiors-wise it’s all unvarnished wood, raw plaster walls, teal tabletops and heaps of houseplants, while downstairs you’ll find a sexily low-lit basement furnished with cosy wooden booths.
The food is a big draw here, too, with roasts on Sundays alongside an East Asian-influenced menu that pays homage to the excellent tradition of London boozers serving up killer Thai food, with a curried potato salad, tom yum clams with fries and a pandan and banana trifle are on offer at the time of writing. Crafted by Emmanuel Ferris-Hue who previously tended bar at The Ned, the cocktail menu follows a similar theme; a rice-washed negroni, a yuzu spritz and a brown butter and pandan old fashioned sound particularly delicious, while the wine list leans heavily towards (you guessed it!) organic and biodynamic pours.
Hackney arguably didn’t really need another late-opening listening bar, much less another small plates restaurant that does natty wine. Happily, though, its latest opening seems to combine the two concepts with aplomb.