Here at The Red Lion we are undertaking a mission ... We are setting up a Christmas market on the first weekend of December.- 5th , 6th & 7th. It will be our very first one & we estimate it can accommodate approx. 20 stalls. To get the ball rolling we are not taking a stall holder fee. It is a prime site with good visibility, if it works who knows where it will lead to.
We are looking for small producers of  foodstuffs or crafts, anything will be considered so  don't be shy & get in touch. You will have to supply stalls & tents yourself, but there will be a full electricity supply as you will be right next to the pub.
We will not however accept stalls for ready to eat food, although cakes & similar ilk will be fine. Email or phone, don't delay it could be the best decision you've made this year. Tel 0208 7482984.

BBQ, Beer, Knowledge & good humour !

 

 

Our latest offering has now been unleashed, 10th July sees another one of our beer & food events, this one will have a Summer theme.
It will feature various BBQ based food bites, served out on our decking, each expertly chosen to compliment it's own specific beer, each flavour carefully considered with nothing left to chance. As we are a proud Fullers pub, all the beers will be our own.
The evening will be hosted by our favourite 'beer host' & expert Melissa Cole who will deliver her usual, honed, unique style, if your haven't experienced an evening with Melissa yet, then now is the time to break your duck.

 

As always on these evenings our beer cellar is open to you & guided tours & the imparting of our Mastercellarman-ship will be part of the night.
I could write further reasons for you to come & book your tickets, but won't, all I will say is that it is a grown up evening, in a beautiful chilled out setting, with great company, good food, stunning beers and lashings of new knowledge.

To book you may email or call 0208 748 2984, tables are limited to a minimum of four persons, so , if you are a two, we will be pairing you up with another couple. Proceedings start at 7:30. We do have limited spaces for this evening, so the cliche of, 'to avoid disappointment, book now' really does count.

Fullers get Punchy !

Fullers are proud to unveil their latest seasonal ale called Brit Hop, available in their pubs  and selected freehouses throughout April.

Brit Hop (4.1% ABV) is brewed with an incredible eight British hops, including an award-winning Admiral 2012*, used for the first time by Fuller’s, brewed in collaboration with Hardknott Brewery, from Cumbria.

Hardknott owner and head brewer Dave Bailey and his wife Anne travelled down to London earlier this March to take part in the first brew with our brewing team.

John Keeling was pleased to be reunited with Hardknott: “I’ve worked with Dave before, on a beer last spring called ‘The English Experiment’, and this time it was Dave’s turn to visit my brewhouse.”

“This is the most varieties of hops that we have ever tried in one beer, and I think probably the most British hops ever used by any other brewer on the planet!”

“The beer was inspired by our very own Chiswick Bitter, which only uses British hops as well. Think of Brit Hop as Chiswick on steroids!”

A new brew for 2013, Brit Hop is a full-flavoured but not overpowering fruity beer, with spicy, peppery notes, rich gooseberry and vine fruit flavours and a soft, sweet aftertaste.

“I am really pleased to be linking up with Fuller’s” said Dave, “I had a great day in the brewery, but the main thing I contributed was to shout "MORE HOPS" at every possible opportunity!”

“I'd like to add a note of thanks for the free flow of technical information from the brewing staff. John and I both agree that craft brewing is about people, attitude and brewing comradeship; something very evident on all my visits to Fuller's.”

*The Admiral 2012 hop won the Institute of Brewing and Distilling award for Best Hop in 2012.

 

If you would like a privillaged "In Cellar Tasting" of this ale, straight from the cask, contact us here at The Red Lion , to arrange a time.

Barnes Business Social

 

 

The pub has long been the heart & soul of British Community life, it has seen this country through good & bad times and should always remain so. The pub is not all about bricks & mortar, the wine & beer or even the cappuccinos or hand cut chips. Without the local community's support it soon becomes an empty soulless shell. In contrast the local community also needs the pub, it gels people together, it's services help fuel debates, people share ideas, discuss other people, help make decisions good or bad, it helps create enterprise just by drawing different people together.


This may all be a quick & lazy analogy designed to suit our requirements, but it is worth thinking about, we have seen it in action & continue to do so everyday.

With all of that foremost in our minds we now take this opportunity to launch a venture onto the business & retail local community in Barnes & it's surrounding areas.
We are calling it the "Barnes Business Social".

Our aim is to create a hub of local retailers, business owners, managers & their like to come together in the pub once every blue moon or so, we'll lay on a few nibbles, & you , well, ..be social ! Get to know one another, share ideas, gossip, moan about Joe public, create or renew ties & bonds. With these new relationships we will all start to support each other & who knows where it could end up ? It's like social media but in an old fashioned format - face to face, how quaint !    

The Red Lion, don't forget played a part ,large or small, in the inspiration for Jimi Hendrix to write his Purple Haze album , so let The Red Lion inspire you too. If you would like to be on board email us now to register your interest, put "Barnes Business Social" into the subject heading. When we have amassed a worthy number we can set a date for our first bash ! , the rest, hopefully, will be history.

Cellar Bar ... A truly unique venue , Open for business.

Fuller's very own beer sommelier Ashley Cherrett in full swing.

Last month saw our very first ticketed event for our beautiful little cellar "tasting bar".

A local business organised a group of 20 people, it was a language school from Barnes, it was not your usual , expected group of language students but a more well healed, mature version that turned up. They had not a clue what lay in store and found themselves in an environment totally alien to them, in the form of a British pub cellar (though no ordinary cellar).

We started the ball rolling with a guided tour and a full run down of casks, kegs, bungs, stillages, shives, keystones, epoxy resin floor paint, gas systems, fob monitors  and many more riveting snippets of information. It was not long before they started to get hooked, in fact it was about the same time that they were allowed to pour themselves their very first pint of Fuller's London Pride straight from the cask. !

 

 Then they were caught in our spell. Just as the first sip of cask conditioned ale was passing their lips, our secret weapon, the brewery's very own beer sommelier Ashley Cherrett pounced into action, offering his expert opinions and advice on flavours that can be found in the pint of bright amber beer and where they have all derived from. We hold many examples of malts and hops, the raw ingredients, here so everyone had a close up, first hand insight into the brewer's mystic arts.

It wasn't long before we unleashed our next stroke of sorcery in the form of an accompanying morsel of food, hand chosen by us, the experts, to compliment the beer, bring out the flavours and take ale drinking to heights they had never dreamed of.
After that they were all, quivering putty in our hands, all completely hooked on cask conditioned ale, food pairing, cellar techniques and the workings thereof.

Two hours passed, more conversation flowed, different beers were poured each complimented with  it's own bite and eventually the merry bunch of beer conscripts, then retired to the more familiar surroundings of the pub to finish their evening, each one owning a little more information than they had before they commenced their journey of discovery.

..... and that's a promise that we make to you too !

If you would like to book yourself an evening as described above then give us a ring (02087482984), drop us a tweet or email a message.

It really is a unique, interesting ,inexpensive, fun, couple of hours, that you'll be hard stretched to find anywhere else. ... go on , you won't regret it, see you soon !

Parties are limited to  a maximum of 20 and a minimum of 10 persons.

A little bit of Spain,

 

 

 

 

 

Probably not a good time to highlight a Spanish special we are running, since it's only 30 minutes since Manchester United got dumped out of the European cup by Real Madrid ! , but hey ho that's football.

For those among you that have not tuned out & shut this brief message down, don't worry it's got nothing to do with football at all.

Just to let those of you who are interested, know of a great deal we are offering at the moment. We are offering the above menu of homemade tapas for two,  with a stunning bottle of Rioja at a fantastic price of £25. It's not very often that we do promos like this, but it's a good little deal for two to relax , enjoy a bottle of good wine, in a peaceful grown up environment. - Hope to see you soon. (hurry while stocks last !)

 

Open Cellar !

 As if we are not busy enough at the moment running around trying to organise, our most fantastically awe inspiring Great Sausage Roll off, here's another reason to pay a visit to The Red Lion, Barnes.

We are throwing open our doors to the beer cellar, something which will probably not float your boat or grab your attention at all , but , give this a chance & honestly you will be pretty impressed. If you have thoughts of a grubby little room, full of boxes & odours of stale beer then you could not be further from the truth. Come down this Wednesday 23rd Jan, between 12noon till 3pm or in the evening after 7pm & have your preconceptions blown out of the water. Our beer cellar, and a lot of Fuller's beer cellars come to that, is the engine room of the pub, here we condition & finish off the ales which our Masterbrewer has sent us, if you want an insight into this world then pop along & you can taste a drop straight out of the cask, poured by your own hands.
Have a look at the barrel to glass journey. Witness how we train our staff, look & smell some raw of the ingredients of beer. If you're not impressed by then, we promise to refund you your money.........
(by the way it's free !)

The Great Sausage Roll Off 2013 - The Finalists

I'll keep it brief, it's the news you have all been waiting for, here is the full list of the finalists, there maybe a couple more to come, but whilst they're deciding upon which pastry to use, here's some we made earlier ! ....

The Red Lion - Barnes - @RedLionBarnes

The Lawn Bistro - Wimbledon Village –  Chef Ollie Couillaud- @olliecouillaud

Shaws Booksellers, City of London - @shawseC4

The Ship - Wandsworth - @shipwandsworth

Masterchef winner 2010 Dhruv Baker - @DhruvBaker1

The Hampshire Hog - Chiswick - @TheHampshireHog
Chef Peter Frost - @frosticals
The Gun - Docklands - @thgundocklands
The Swan - Bampton , Devon - @theswanbampton

The Masons Arms - Battersea - @masonsbattersea

The Plateau Restaurant - Canada Square – Chef Allan Picket - @chefallanp

The Victoria - East Sheen – Chef Charlie Boyce- @chinaboyce

The Rib Man/Egg_Boss collaboration

- Chefs Mark Gevaux & Sean Lawson - @theribman @Egg_Boss

We Eat - @we_eat
Daffodil Soup/African Volcano collaboration -
- Chefs Linda Galloway & Grant Hawthorne - @Daffodilsoup @AfricanVolcano
The Stonemasons Arms - Hammersmith - Chef Neil Reid - @djbigtwist
The Lamb at Angmering - Chef Dan Catford - @danchef
Charlottes Place Ealing - Chef Gregg Martin -  @CharlottesW5
The Hand & Flower , Olympia - Chef "Cue" - @HandFW14

 

Phew !

 

 

'The Great Sausage Roll Off'

 

Roll up Roll up ! (quite literally)

 

Calling all chefs, bakers & foodies, On the 30^th January 2013 we will be hosting something really special & are inviting you to be part of it. 

It is the launch of a brand new annual event to hit the London food scene.

 

The Red Lion, Barnes presents…. "The Great Sausage Roll Off ",

In a nutshell , or even a pastry case ! it is a quest,  with live cooking, &  real chefs, to find Great Britain’s best sausage roll, it’s not going to be any old sausage roll. We are looking for a sausage roll that has been taken to new heights. We aim only to allow the best calibre entrants with the best ideas & although it’ll be a tongue in cheek evening with banter humour & fun, ultimately we are looking to get the cream of chefs & bakers to create a sausage roll like never before.

 

So make a note of this date in your diary & come along on the night to witness a great event, we need full support from all of you, you do not need to be an entrant to watch & taste !

 

We have a star studded line up of judges on our panel, which will be revealed in due course,(you'll be surprised) there will be a unique quiz during the evening & the beer will be flowing.

First prize, not only will be a glittering trophy, but will also be a fully paid party night aboard Fuller’s very own London Pride Thames river boat for the winning chef & their team. A truly unique prize.

Full updates will be kept on this blog, so keep checking & get your entry in now.

If you would like the chance to be an entrant, email , tweet ( @RedLionBarnes ) , or call Angus at The Red Lion.

 

 

New Years Eve 2012

We are billing this is a "Quiet Night In". It is our relaxed, calm & informal way of seeing in the New Year. You can use it as either as an intimate dinner for two or book with friends & family.
We have created a menu to give our chefs a chance to show off & you can taste this beautiful dinner at a reasonable price.
It's an honest night in our lovely pub, simple as that, no DJs, no stress, no fuss, just a grown up way of seeing 2013 show it's face. Call us or email to book.


Sausage Roll ..... now there's an idea ....

How would you like yours .....?

Big Curry night update.

Thirteen was not an unliucky number for them, what with all that free beer & curry !

So, just a quick update to let you all know what a successful night we had. We managed to raise a little over £800 & with a sponsored parachute jump on the way soon, courtesy of our assistant manager, Alex, this should take it well over the £1000 mark.

 

Pictured above are the thirteen members of the Household Cavalry's Blues & Royals who we invited down for a night on us. They went home with full bellies of Curry & Fuller's Bengal Lancer.  

 

It was a good night with some authentic curries, Special thanks to Nina of V.I.P nuts for her beautifully cooked Punjab chicken curry & use of her secret spices & a thank you also to Neil Reid, one of our in company chefs, for a taste of his mother's 'curry goat', she taught you well mate !

 

 

We are very proud that we are able to hand over a substantial sum & thus help somebody out who laid their life on the line, in the call of duty.

Special thanks also to my staunch loyal regulars for supporting our night, some of whom are pictured left.
During the night we also held a mini auction, the soldiers donated a tour, with lunch afterwards at their barracks in Knightsbridge. Our very own brewery, Fullers, kindly donated a bumper hamper & our local MP, Mr Zac Goldsmith kindly donated afternoon tea, with him, in Parliament, thank you to all of you, we are most gracious.

 

Finally, kind regards also to the team at BigCurry.Org for all their help & assistance with ideas, tweets & promotional material - I promise I will get you some more pubs on board for extra support, speak to you next year !

Gobble til' ya Wobble !



Please forgive us, we couldn't resist it.

So, silly season is looming, this means our annual spiritual trip to the USA is around the corner, in the form of our, now well renowned, Thanksgiving Dinner. Now into it's ninth year here at The Red Lion, Barnes, although we personally, have been laying this on in our various establishments for nearer fifteen years, Oh how time flies when you have fun !

We like to look at Thanksgiving as the perfect prelude to Christmas, we decorate the pub for this day to give it the best possible feel for everybody & is definitely the most successful event of the year, infact as I write this on this date find ourselves half full on bookings already. The majority of these are regular faces that we see every year. Ninety five percent of our customer base is made up of American expats & locals to the Red Lion, living in & around Barnes.

Our menu is a mish mash of North & Southern food, the Cider glazed Turkey is accompanied by cornbread stuffing made from scratch, candied yams with marshmallows,mashed rutabagas & potatoes to name a few of the sides, rounded off with a generous slice of moreish, cinamony, traditional pumpkin pie.

By the way you don't have to be an American to appreciate this event, (but it does help if you can speak the lingo !)

The price per head is £20.00, with two sittings, the first at 17:30 is designed for the younger families with children & the second sitting at 20:30 is for adults only. We do serve half portions for the little ones.

If you want to Gobble till you Wobble, call us now.

Our "Big Curry" Friday, October 19th 2012

Click to read more about Big Curry

 

We only discovered this wonderful organisation "ABF The Big Curry" last year after seeing tweets from various people & establishments, we quickly recognised the importance & relevance of it & signed up only to realise that we were a bit late, however, a year has since passed & the good news is we are ready, willing, & able to host our first one, &, all going well, many more for years to come. We really hope this will become a regular addition to our annual calendar.

Now in its 6th year, ABF The Soldiers' Charity are asking  people across the UK to join in their flagship fund raising event 'The Soldiers' Charity Big Curry' in October. By signing up to host a one off Big Curry themed event we can help to support and raise funds for our soldiers, former soldiers and their families.

We, at the Red Lion, have also gone one step further & invited some serving soldiers from a local London barracks to come down & enjoy an evening on us as a way of showing our gratitude for all their hard work. After much coercion, the promise of a belly full of beer & a curry was too much to resist so they will be here on the night. 

The date will be the evening of Friday 19th October. It will be at a price of £15 per head, with £2.50 of it to go towards the charity. We are looking to gain some prizes to auction off on the night & there will also be collecting tins available if you feel you would like to donate more to the cause.

Those of you who know the Red Lion appreciate that we strive to serve the best food we can & at value for money. The food will be a selection of various curries, dahls, rices, chapatis, & other foods.The final menu will appear here soon, but rest assured it will be expertly cooked & definitely be a spread not to be missed.

Finally the evening would not be complete without a mention of the beer, although not compulsory, we really can not pass up the opportunity to match our wonderful curry night with a wonderful beer match that almost seems perfect for the event. Fullers Bengal Lancer is a fine example of an India Pale Ale, deep & golden with a lush, hoppy aroma, packed with oily, sappy resins & laced with a sherbety citrus note. There’s an almost pineapple-like tropical fruit character, too, with everything built on a sturdy bed of biscuity pale and crystal malt. Perfect to wash down your curry.

For this night you will be able to book a table, so don't delay & give us a call on

0208 7482984 or click here to email us......NOW !

 

Models wanted ....please !!

Starting on the 27th July, you will have a unique chance to grab yourself a stylish "I YLondon" T shirt in association with Fullers London Pride. Simply get yourself to the bar for a collector card, see your way through 5 pints of London's finest quality premium cask conditioned ale & you will be the proud owner of one.
 Whilst writing this post I had the fortune of two stunning models walk into the pub, unfortunately they declined my offer & kept on walking, I therefore had to make do with these two reprobates instead, however you get the idea .......cheers boys, thanks & good on you, what would a pub be without great regulars !?

Our "Battle of Britain"

The time has now come for us to unveil an event which we are very excited about and which you have probably not seen before, we are billing it as "The Battle of Britain". It is on Friday the 18th May at 7:30pm, and is essentially a beer and food pairing event with a bit of fun, some national pride and a lot of gentle rivalry. 

The three way, no holds barred, competition will be between three of the countries top brewers and their breweries.

Representing England is our very own Chiswick based Fullers, from Scotland is the Forth Valley's Harviestoun Brewery and thirdly we have South Wales' very own Otley Brewery.
As stated earlier it is not only their award winning beers which will be appearing here but more importantly their renowned Head Brewers too, this is really a unique event and a rare opportunity for you to witness the meeting of some great brewing minds. And, as if this was not enough, the evening will be compered by our favourite beer and food writer Melissa Cole who, I'm sure will be do her best to keep things fair and above board.

The evening's proceedings will be held outside in our beautiful garden and will involve a theatrical three course meal with varying array of flavours. The first course will be a collection of Dim Sum and dipping sauces from the far east, for mains we will go over to Spain for a giant Paella Carne, cooked outside in front of you, and for dessert there will be chocolate fountains on your tables. Each course will be accompanied with a beer from each brewery, it is your job to work out who's beer matches the food and pairs up with the flavours the best. There will be plenty of banter, plenty of beer and no doubt there will be a few more surprises thrown into the mix.
Tickets are on sale now at a price of £40 per head, Tables are limited to a minimum of 4 persons per table, if you want us to help you make up a four, just ask, we have plenty of friendly locals who don't normally bite. There are, of course, limited spaces, so it's probably best not to wait for too long before you book. If you require anymore information, please, do not hesitate to contact us. Finally we apologise to our Northern Irish brothers & sisters that there is no representation from over the sea, approaches we made but to no avail.

Burns Night 2012

Click to see our exciting menu....

Here we go again , now taking bookings for our second Burn's night. It will again be a 3 course dinner, proceedings will begin at 19:30. The menu is above (click on picture). There will be a piper & readings given by some professional actors. Whose faces you may recognise. As you can see by previous posts last year was a huge success and we were a full house. You will not be disappointed so best to book early. Once the local word gets out we will fill up fast. Don't delay.

I don't believe it....

I was doing such a good job at this pub blogging lark and then it all fell silent, once again this space will be filled with a promise not to be a stranger, in the mean time have a look at past posts for a taste of last year. Catch up with you soon. And thanks for your interest.

"Battle of The Sexes" THE RESULT

Warming Up !

 So, our inaugural beer & food match in the distinguished company of John Keeling & Melissa Cole (to whom we both owe a great big thank you) & under the heading of  "Battle of the sexes" has passed & ended up as a resounding success.

It was one of the more difficult functions we've ever catered for but it was not as if we slid into the beer & food match world gently in any way.

Getting in the flow....

We entered into it with a four course meal, the starter was made up of four separate components alone, the main was two plus each course was matched with two rival beers, which meant that the sixty people booked each had to be delivered sixteen different beers throughout the evening, (needless to say sobriety was not in much evidence come taxi time)



Pass the "Canopys" Mavis...



It also had to be timed such that the beers were at the correct temperature in the correct order at the correct point in the meal, to call it a logistical mind bender would be one description for it, although our poor assistant manager who's task this was had a more flowery version.! The food was not standard fare either there were some quite "challenging" dishes (again not a term our chefs used during service ) including a Fatt Putt , Lahmacun and Salt cod Brandade all made from scratch, Irish rock oysters to open as close to service as possible & not to mention caramel tarts & pear tatins all individually crafted. One of the main focuses from the chefs eye view was to deliver as much fine flavours as possible in the food to compliment & match all the excellent beers chosen by John & Melissa.

The man speaks !

It would have been easier to cook up a few sausages, serve a chocolate cake & bang out a cheese board but this was not what we were aiming for. We have set our own high bar for beer & food tasting here at The Red Lion and enjoyed it immensely, now watch out for the sequel in the Spring, It's going to be huge...trust us !

By the way forgot to mention, Melissa launched her new book "Let Me Tell You About Beer: A Beginner's Guide to All Things Brewed" well worth it. And finally if you wondered, yes, the stronger sex did win....... 

Thanksgiving in Barnes

Brits !! Please don't be shocked.....

Regulars, & those in the know, are aware of one of biggest success stories in the form of our now famous Thanksgiving Dinner, not a gimmick, but a bona fide night for our friends from "across the pond" to celebrate their holiday away from home in our beautiful pub in wonderful Barnes. Always a sellout night with bookings rolling over from year to year & a true family occasion. Whether your an expat, tourist, or somebody just caught temporarily here in London you are more than welcome to spend an evening in the company of your fellow Americans (of which there are quite a few)
 We are now taking bookings. The menu is as authentic as it can be with a British cook in charge, but with eleven years of hosting this event under our belts I can truly say we do not do a bad job. If you fancy it, BOOK NOW or you will be disappointed.....really, do not hesitate.