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London — if you ask us, it’s a beautiful city full of cheeky lads & loves. Don’t believe it? Do the maths, mate: a city is objectively bussin when it has a preponderance of Spyfriends, and based on our internal figures, London is our “second-biggest market” behind NYC, just ahead of L.A.
I (Jonah) am from NYC. And I go to L.A. all the time. But London?? The last time I was there was 2011. Unacceptable. So the other day I touched down at Heathrow for a week of moseying down these footpaths and tossing back these Jaffa cakes — feeling proper chuffed the whole time because British Gaia held back the rain and even blessed me with a few sunny days…
I returned with the recon-weight equivalent of like “3,000 stone” worth of London intel for you — sick shops, designers, restaurants and more.
This is in addition to the intel on fire inexpensive pleated pants we gained on Day One of the trip while traipsing through Marylebone. (Check our Global Intel Travel Chat Room for more far-flung city recon.)
BTW, to the London Spyfriend who hit Dean Kissick on Whatsapp while we were there and asked him to pass me an invitation to your haggis party, thank you so much, we wanted to come try your haggis, but it sadly wasn’t in the cards that night.
Today’s full report is an exclusive for our Cla$$ified Tier Subscribers. For ease of use, when you see a “📀” below, that’s a DVD-ROM: Dope Vibey D*mn Recon Ordnance Marker. Let’s get into it —
First up, big props to Issy Wood, a great painter whose East London studio I popped into one afternoon to chop it up and glimpse some work in progress. Not only did Issy order lunch from the fantastic local Punjabi institution 📀 Tayyab’s, she also tipped me off to a slapping chippy where I got a fantastic £11 lunch the next day. The food was good, and the ambiance was outta control.
Do not miss 📀 The Fryer’s Delight…
Peep that wood paneling… peep that formica!!
I opted for rockfish but there’s a bunch of seafood options to batter the f**k up. Ask them to slop a side of mashed peas on your plate, douse the chips in salt & vinegar, then more vinegar, and splash some tartar-sauce on the fish, which, while very crispy outside and very juicy inside, was happy all the same to receive some seasoning. (Apparently people love the fried chicken here, too, but that’s not what I was in the market for.)
Besides that — and before we run through mad cool SHOPS, DESIGNERS and ATTRACTIONS — these were the best meals we ate: