Building a wine bar one to-do list at a time
Plus a bunch of other things beyond Joyau
Joyau wouldn’t be where it is today without to do lists.
Every week brings with it a different set of tasks. Some carry over from the previous week, others are new entries and a handful come and go, depending on how much of a priority we think it is.
The jobs vary – clean store room, fit toilet seat, call plumber, chase council for outdoor licence, order cutlery, paint wall, tip run (of which there have been many) – and we’ve been ticking them off, slowly but surely making the to do list shorter.
We now have running taps in the kitchen, cutlery, wine on shelves, a pot plant! Candlesticks! A menu!
Thanks to Gaetan, the opening line up is looking (and tasting!) pretty delicious. Think rustic French snacks that have an air of chic nonchalance.
The to do list now only has a handful of jobs we need to do before we open. We’re talking things like fix the lights in the toilet (essential), fully stock the wine shelves and remove the overflowing tool kit.
Essentially, the dish is cooked. It’s well seasoned and ready to serve.
A bunch of things beyond Joyau
I’ve been on a bit of baking jag thanks to Alison Roman’s new cookbook Sweet Enough. So far I’ve made the banana bread - which turned out miraculously quite well even without the eggs I was meant to add - and the cold carrot cake, which was every level of squidgy I hoped it would be.
Toasted Bread Bread Bakery potato semolina sourdough + homemade labneh + za’atar = a very good breakfast.
Abbie Moulton’s book New British Wine whetting my appetite for all the exciting potential of wine made on our doorstep.
Reading up on Domaine de La Cassiopée, an estate in the extreme south of Burgundy’s Côte de Beaune run by Hugo and Talloulah Mathurin. The couple moved to the area in 2020 and two years later, they’re producing deliciously complex and elegant wines that are nearly impossible to find.
Anyone in doubt that the perfect pub doesn’t exist has never been to The Prince Arthur on Forest Road, E8.