Venue review: The White House
The White House in Clapham, south London, has opened for trading after some serious delays, providing an alternative destination to the West End. Tom Innes makes the journey south of the river to see if the wait was worth it .
The term yuppie may have fallen out of common usage, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of young urban professionals around affluent parts of south London. Clapham is home to many thousands of them, many in long-term relationships that have made them dinkies (dual income, no kids).
Members of the south London set will typically work in central London and still occasionally go out in the West End. But each time they do they are more irritated by the drunken pondlife milling around in Leicester Square, the attitude of the doorstaff and the battle to get a cab home. What they want is somewhere decent closer to their own backyard, and that's where the White House comes in.
James Lohan and Ben Sowton have been based in this part of south London for years and since 1996 they have run Atomic, a company specialising in organising and executing all sorts of events from product launches to marketing programmes to company Christmas parties. They've wanted to run their own venue for some time, a place which will stage an event of sorts 365 days a year, and the former "boozer" in Clapham Park Road, was just the venue.
"We wanted to provide a grown-up venue for people who live in the area," explained Ben. "They can treat it as a local and come in for a pint or an inexpensive bottle of wine but they're also likely to want to trade up to champagne on certain occasions."
Although Clapham is well stocked with venues aiming at a slightly younger, mid 20s crowd, there has been a gap for something pitched at the older more discerning set which has been filled recently by Sand, Lee Chapman's So.uk and now the White House.
Turning old boozers into swish modern venues isn't necessarily difficult, but when some of the support pillars have big gaps in them, to such an extent that you have to install 30 tons of steel into the structure to shore things up, then you're dealing with a serious building project. The opening of the White House was seriously delayed, having originally been pencilled in for early January, but in many respects to get the venue open some 11 months after acquiring the site on March 29 last year was an achievement.
Architects Waugh Thistleton didn't get the design exactly as the owners wanted it first time, but tweaks were easily achieved through the wonders of computer-aided design.
"The first drawings looked like a noodle bar and then it turned into a Fine Line (London brewer Fuller's bar concept)," Ben said. "What we were able to do was look at the images on screen and gradually change it to how we wanted it - we wanted to bring in features from all the venues we liked best and provide different areas so the venue wouldn't be the same for people every time they came here."
For the main ground-floor area this meant a café-bar style front area which becomes louder and packed with vertical drinkers later in the evenings. To the rear there are semi-circular booths against one wall, a sunken area with low seats, a number of smaller tables with brown leather pouffes and a raised, recessed area in one corner. This is not a formal, white cloths and table settings type restaurant, but areas can be reserved.
The word tapas was ultimately rejected for the food offer because its connotations were too "snacky"- the intention was to provide a series of dishes that could be combined to make the quantity of a full meal without the formality of set courses and separate plates for separate diners. "Sharing food" was the description eventually adopted, and it seems to work - whereas a full-on meal can often scupper the momentum of a night out, the White House menu is tasty and varied and doesn't leave you clutching either your wallet or your stomach. The dishes all cost around £5 and include items like Thai fishcakes, mini Yorkshire puddings with rare roast beef, Greek salad and onion bhaji rings.
The exception to the rule for food comes on Sundays, when the tables are laid and the menu switches to roast dinners (£10) or an all-day breakfast.
The rear area is kept free for those eating at tables, although after around 10pm it gets louder and busier and is nearer a club than a restaurant. There is a 2am licence, another attraction for locals who can return from central London and have time to change and go out at a more leisurely pace. Ex-dinkies can even get the kids to bed before the babysitter arrives.
The scale of the building allowed for different dimensions to be added to the outlet. The first-floor members' bar has a colonial feel with wooden shutters, subtle lighting and low suede sofas. It was originally to have been called the Tobacco Lounge, and though this name was shelved the idea remains intact, with a black glass bar that incorporates a humidor packed with cigars that complement the Cuban drawings on the walls. Such items may seen incongruous in a venue called the White House, although the last US President was known to partake of Cuban cigars in the real White House. In Clapham members are encouraged to use cigars in the style of President Castro rather than President Clinton.
The members' area also includes an outdoor terrace, and on the second floor there are two private dining areas for functions of up to 28 people.
Membership is an important part of building up a loyal customer base and ensuring trade throughout the week. The list is being increased gradually, with admission costing £50 plus £200 a year.
"We have to be strict because capacity for members is only 65 people," Ben said. "For some people the novelty will wear off but what we want is to be left with a core of loyal members."
Ben, James and their staff, headed by operations director Mark Winstone, are particularly keen to offer good value, and to that end wines start at £11 (£3 by the glass), bottles of beer are £2.70 and spirits £4 for a 35ml measure. Ben said the UDV portfolio had been selected after presentations from all the major companies, not purely on price but because of the marketing support and the recognisability of the key brands.
The cocktail list contains a selection of 18 drinks, mainly classics. The initial menu didn't include explanations of the cocktails, but it had been decided this is necessary in order to better direct customers, and a new list is pending.
In forthcoming months the priority is to get every aspect of the venue operating properly and iron out some of the teething troubles. The end result is impressive even if the weeks leading up to the initial opening were stressful.
"I think the main lesson we learned was the need to ensure that you have your expectations managed," Ben said. "It's better not to become too committed to a set opening date and to just open when you're ready.
"We had a number of parties around the time we were meant to open and this just caused more delay - you shouldn't give the contractors any excuse to stop work!"
