Behind This Wall Autumn Menu Launch

Behind This Wall, the subterranean neighbourhood cocktail bar  on Hackney’s Mare Street,  has created a new cocktail and oyster offering that brings  together the world’s most Autumnal flavours in one highly conceptual  menu. Launching on 22nd September, Behind This Wall’s new menu  will fuse  the rich flavours of a classic New England fall with the spiced warmth of an Indian Summer.

Alex Harris is the co-founder, head bartender  and chef at  Behind This Wall  and  creator  of  the new seasonal concept. He has created the ultimate autumnal menu inspired by a fantasy place; a tropical island, influenced by the flavours of Indian trade roots and  the iconic  tastes o f New England.  This inspired  new  menu draws from the heat of the Indian summer with heady spices such as garam masala extract, cardamom tonic and naga chilli molasses, which complement and contrast the rich russets of
New England – absinthe-flamed maple bourbon cherries and cold apple cedar smoke.

The  new  menu blurs the  margins between food and drink; with many of the cocktails reading like a gastronomic experience. In structure, it is reminiscent of classic  hotel cocktail lists,  where drinks are grouped  by  time  of  day.  Behind  This  Wall’s  menu  is  thoughtfully  divided  into  aperitifs,  digestifs, highballs and pousse-cafes which seek to gently guide the drinker through the evening.

Example from the menu include:

  Hail  Mary:  Blended  Scotch,  clam  chowder  oyster,  garam  masala  extract,  Chesapeake seasoning, tomato, beetroot & celery juice, pickle juice, lemon sea foam and timut pepper £8

  Vieux Over Manhattan – 100 proof rye, sweet vermouth, pisco, herbal liqueur and cold apple cedar smoke £9
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Complementing the cocktails,  Alex’s thoughtfully honed bar snack menu is inspired by  a melange of culinary influences ranging from Heston Blumenthal to Hawaiian chef, Roy Choi, and his mother , also a chef. Alex takes bar snacks seriously and believes they should be of equal calibre to the drinks menu and a vital part of the whole experience. He is an advocate of the pure flavours of raw eating and the autumn menu features inventive,  elaborate  and perfectly formed morsels  such as  pumpkin oyster
with  black  rice,  switchel  glaze,  lime  pickled  onions,  lemon  sea  foam,  Chesapeake  seasoning  withtoasted pumpkin seeds.
Alex Harris’s career in the food and drink industry started traditionally,  working with a catalogue of esteemed restaurants and bars  –  Met Bar, The Ritz, Soho House Group. This was unconventionally followed  by  an  interlude  as  a  music  technology  teacher  alongside  continued  mixed  bar  and promotional work at sorely missed club-land institutions: T-Bar and Plastic People.  Food, drink and music work hand in hand for Alex and after a successful pop up at events hub, Oval Space, Behind This
Wall found a permanent home for cleverly crafted evenings of music, poke and cocktails in March 2016.

In Hackney, basement bars are ubiquitous, but Behind This Wall contravenes the stereotype. With a white  tiled  bar  and  pale  plywood  seating,  the  aesthetic  is  Scandi-Japanese  –  bright,  tactile  and minimalist. Designed by friend and collaborator Elliot Barnes of Separate Blues, and part built by Alex himself, the venue is a blank canvas on which Alex has unleashed his culinary creativity.