We had a lovely lunch at the 'relaunched' Green & Blue on Lordship Lane yesterday. We shared the baked Mont d'Or which came with ratte potatoes, charcuterie and a baby gem salad. With a glass of their Cotes du Rhone it made for a perfect (if rather indulgent) Sunday lunch.

Love what they've done with the space inside, especially the new long bar where the deli counter used to be. Really looking forward to going back and trying more of the menu soon.

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@EatsDulwich
www.eatsdulwich.blogspot.com

They also do great coffee.

Haven't been down since the relaunch but do they still have free wi-fi?

We went there last night, had the Mont d'Or too, which was delicious.
Also on tueasday nights you can buy any bottle of wine and drink it in house at the take away price. no corkage fee.

£11 for black pudding and chickpeas?! Is that paying for the entire refurb?

I mean chickpeas cost almost nothing and black pudding in the Irish shop is about £2.50 for a whole one. I don't mind paying good money for good food but this seems pretty steep in the current climate.

Will they do a New Year's day Brunch on Sunday 1 Jan??

I think the refurb looks great, but they seem to have steered away from the wine shop part of their business in favour of being primarilly a cafe bar. I think it's a shame.

rahrahrah Wrote:
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> I think the refurb looks great, but they seem to
> have steered away from the wine shop part of their
> business in favour of being primarilly a cafe bar.
> I think it's a shame.


yeah, it's all very well making it more like a restaurant/bar - and that part of it is great, but they've done away with the very hand signs for the wine - 'fruity', 'soft', 'rich' etc - that made buying wine there so easy. And there's hardly any wine in the fridges... So i've got mixed feelings about the relaunch. Though i will always be a huge fan of the wine they sell. It's always top quality.

Went in today for the first time post-refurb and walked out (in a non-dramatic way) after seeing the revised menu. I can see where they're going with this - focusing on the adult, wine drinking trade. But, in an area full of young families, it does seem a little odd to me to exclude such a large group by having nothing suitable for young children to eat.

Maybe they've looked at where they make their money from and concluded that they can do better with this format. This may well work at the weekends and in the evenings, but the week day trade is likely to drop significantly methinks.

Additionally, they seem to have removed some of the distinctive elements which attracted us in the first instance (pre-children). We loved the deli counter food and excellent wine selection, which seems more limited now.

Perhaps this is an experimental phase and a more varied food and wine offering will return. In the meantime, sadly we'll be giving it a miss.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit was 2011:12:11:01:49:17 by MrsMc.

Some of the charm has been lost. There was always a ramshackle feel to to the place, staff and customers in a constant bustle, tables of interesting goodies scattered about and a place you felt comfortable browsing for weird chocolate, off-the-beaten-track wine or jars of 'stuff'. Now it's slick. (nice bar though)

I met a friend for lunch there on Friday. It used to be a regular haunt of mine, both lunchtimes and evenings, but I am now priced out by their revised, limited, and v expensive menu. I had a plate of lentil stew (it was good) and one slice of bread which was served without butter, for I think it was £9, might have been £11. There was no soap or toilet paper in the ladies loo, I had to return a knife and a plate that were dirty (yes we did say something at the time). I was just generally rather underwhelmed. And I agree with what maxxi says above.

Dear EDF users

Thanks so much for your comments above - we are incredibly pleased that some of you are so happy with our relaunched shop and bar but would like to address the concerns of those of you who aren't. We remain very serious about being an important part of the local community and the less positive comments all need addressing.

In no particular order :-

1. The price of the food. With the deli counter, we were starting to have serious problems with making a profit. As you are aware, we are incredibly careful about who we source food and wine from and the stark reality of the world we live in is that if you insist on properly made food from plants or animals grown and reared without chemical intervention, then it is going to cost more. We were getting to the point where we would have had to start charging over £15 for our pies in order to make a profit and that would have caused riots (justifiably so). Putting in a kitchen means that the menu is actually cheaper given the quality of the ingredients. Yes, of course you can buy a black pudding for £2.50. You can have a whole meal in a caff for well under £10. But you will be eating food that is heavily processed from raw ingredients that are full of all kinds of nonsense. In the end, it comes down to how important this kind of thing is to you but to us, it is vitally important.

2.We are in discussion with the chefs about a version of the children's menu, so please watch this space.

3. Our wine selection is actually the same size, just crammed into a smaller space. When our cold room is running as it should and all the signage is back up, we hope very much that no-one will feel short changed. Wine remains our first love and so having a vibrant retail space is incredibly important to us.

4. Wifi remains free and cake and coffee during the day is the same price it always was.

We might look more spruced up (and seriously - this is better; we had HOLES in our floor which was depressing us no end), but the team and our ethos remain exactly the same so we very much hope that everyone will be a bit patient while we iron out all the re-opening kinks and that you will all be back for wine, tastings, cake and delicious meals.

very best wishes

Green & Blue

With all due respect, I can't help wondering how Franklins manage to offer such a reasonable "bar menu" with filling options for £5 and both Palmerston and Franklins offer very reasonable set lunches at around the £13- £14 mark and yet Green and Blue can't?

I have specifically chosen those as examples as I believe they source their ingredients carefully and also have on-site kitchens. And I imagine you are catering for a similar clientelle/ market.

In the end, people will vote with their feet - I wish you every success, but I suspect you may have over-estimated the strength of the East Dulwich pound.

Fair enough Greenandbluegang - but I just think people (well, me) don't want to spend £20 on a quick lunch with a friend. Can you not add a few cheaper, more lunchy things to the menu say soup, bruschetta, pate and toast, meat cheese or fish platters like wot you used to do?

I don't see the fuss, it seems similarly priced to most places in ED to me...

You can't get anything in Franklins for a fiver last time I looked!

Actually Paragon I'm pretty sure I'm correct about Franklin's bar menu - black pudding, soup, welsh rarebit - there are about six things perfectly designed for a hearty lunch and all very reasonable.

I think that was a very fair response from Green&Blue. Haven't yet tried it out since the refurb but the new bar looks good. Not sure the menu looks particularly unreasonable either

Bellenden Belle Wrote:
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> Actually Paragon I'm pretty sure I'm correct about
> Franklin's bar menu - black pudding, soup, welsh
> rarebit - there are about six things perfectly
> designed for a hearty lunch and all very
> reasonable.

Yes you can get a few things like cheese on toast, bacon sandwich, scrambled eggs on toast, scotch woodcock, soup and bread at Franlkins for about a fiver as a bar snack.
Looking forward to coming into the relaunched G&B this week to check out the new menu

Quite - black pudding on toast. For a fiver. And it's good quality and you get a mound of it.

So, how can G&B warrant charging £11 for black pudding with chick peas?

Thanks so much again for all your comments, everyone. You will be pleased to know that further to a meeting with our chef yesterday, a children's menu and a lunch menu is on the way and will be with us hopefully before Christmas.

Please do say hi when you pop in - it is always very good to meet you.

best wishes

Green & Blue

Right there's your answer, d_c.

All

As one of the owners of G&B I'd just like to add my thoughts.

First, thanks for the many many lovely comments we've had, here and elsewhere. We really do appreciate all the local support we have. It is inevitably with a refurb and a slight change of direction that it will take a while for us to settle in and get things right. We are listening, and we are tweaking and adding and changing bits all the time. So if there is something that we can improve on do let us know. But also do bear in mind it'll take us a week or two to iron out the creases.

Secondly, our wine selection has remained exactly the same size. To open quickly, we had to do so before our lovely cool room was up and running perfectly (the cooling unit wasn't delivered in time!) and so the wines are a bit squished into all the space we have available. When the cool room is ready and the whites/bubblies/other stuff have been moved in, then the reds will have more space and the signage can go up again. Meantime if you can't spot one of your favourites please do ask us about it. Chances are it's lurking around somewhere.

Finally, we still have free wifi, we still have teas and coffees, we still have cakes, and we are still welcoming all the mums and babes and coffee drinkers and workers from home that we always have. And lots of you seem to be coming back - had a lovely group of women in the other day with their new babies and I remember seeing them all come in very pregnant. So cute! And so nice to see them all back.

So bear with us. I hope you'll grow to like the new us eventually. We know we can't keep everyone happy, but we are doing our best to get it right.

paragon Wrote:
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>
> You can't get anything in Franklins for a fiver
> last time I looked!

xxxxxxxxx

There's a whole load of yummy stuff available in Franklins for just over a fiver.

It was a fiver until quite recently and I think it's now £5.50 - still excellent value for a very filling brunch.

The Welsh rarebit, Scotch woodcock and black pudding on toast are particularly yummy.

And there's a whole load more yummy brunch type things for a couple of quid more.

Just don't have the veggie option with the bubble and squeak unless you like a pile of soggy mash with a few bits of cabbage in it that seems never to have seen a frying pan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit was 2011:12:13:18:58:14 by Sue.

Great response from G&B I thought. Clearly taking feedback on board. I personally think the refurb looks great and I'm glad that the retail part of the business isn't going to be taking a back seat. We're lucky to have such an exceptional local wine shop.

Thanks Rahrahrah. I'm glad you like the wine shop, and no it certainly isn't taking a back seat. It's as important to us as ever, which is why we spent money on a proper cooling room. We really hope you'll like it.

Having been slightly critical about a loss of charm I should admit that I have always been a 'pop-in-and-pick-something-up' rather than a 'stay-for-a-drink/something-to-eat' kind of customer so I am coming at it from a skewed p.o.v.

And I have to add a big thankyou for securing my 10L Orchard Pig box for the festive season

I agree with maxxi - the old charm is mostly gone. A glass "wine cellar" instead of a cosy corner with sofas as it was before? New lamps hanging form the ceiling give cold and unfriendly light. And a bottle of rather average rose for 24 quid? Booo!

ab29 - I'm sorry you feel that the old charm has gone. The trouble is it's always a balance between competing interests. Upstairs from Green and Blue are lots of flats, which have had various issues, causing various leaks into our building. The result has been damp and mould - not a good look, and not hygenic. It's an old building, so there were holes in the floor, which weren't safe and weren't getting any better. The toilet doors were sticking and tricky to open and close. The velux window at the back was leaking. We have had lots of comments that people would come in more during the day if the lighting was a bit brighter. We like the cosy shabby look too, but it had frankly gone a bit far. Whenever you first repaint things do look a bit shiny and new and less, well, cosy. But in a few months' time it will settle down, and not look quite so squeaky new. Take a look at the new floor in number 38 and you'll see what I mean - the shabby chic look is creeping back already!

Yes, the sofas have gone, and I miss them too. But we had to make some sacrifices with the space we have available. Because the cellars here are damp, warm, and prone to flooding, we can't store anything in them, but we wanted to keep the same variety of wine selection. So we gave up the sofa area for a cold room, so that we could keep all the wines that need to be a cellar temp or below in a proper environment that means they are in good condition when they are bought and drunk. It's a shame to lose the sofas, but something had to give. Unless you have a limitless budget and a huge builidng, refurbs are all about compromise.

I'm sorry that you thought our rose was average. We'd respectfully disagree, but then again wine is all about personal taste and there's no right or wrong. If you like rose but not the bottle you tried, tell us why you didn't like it and we'll try to find something more to your taste. And if you thought it was a bit out of your budget, try coming in on a Tuesday night instead. All bottles over £10 are shop price in the bar, so that should help a bit.

Bear with us. We really are trying to get it right, but there are lots of competing interests and lots of differing and diverse feedback to listen to.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit was 2011:12:14:10:16:39 by legalbeagle.

rahrahrah Wrote:
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> Great response from G&B I thought. Clearly taking
> feedback on board. I personally think the refurb
> looks great and I'm glad that the retail part of
> the business isn't going to be taking a back seat.
> We're lucky to have such an exceptional local wine
> shop.

Great post rahrahrah, couldn't agree more.

Less than a week since the refurb and good to see some positive comments on here about this lovely, local, independent business. Managed to locate my new favourite white Theodora no problem. Friends visiting from other parts of London love G&B too, very pleased its here and listening to all the feedback too.

Good luck to the G&B gang

Oh and Maxxi - thanks for the comments, and you're very welcome. Anything else you need for Christmas, do let us know!