January Dreaming: Picnic from Borough Market at The Castle in July

This post is a continuation of a sort-of-annual series, January Dreaming. Click for the series, and see the end of the post for the backstory.

January dreaming is about recalling good times in warmer climes to help endure the shivering in the cold through this most dismal of the winter months. I might be harnessing a bit of hyperbole, in that “cold” doesn’t mean the same here in Southeast Texas as it does in Iceland, Scotland, Portland, Cleveland or Maryland, but it’s all relative, right? It’s going to freeze here next weekend, the weather folks tell us. Brrrr! Time for some January dreaming.

This morning over coffee at the fire pit outside, The Grill-Meister and I were doing some January dreaming, thinking back to our summer vacation this year in Scotland and England in celebration of our 15th anniversary. Specifically, we reminisced about a wonderful charcuterie “picnic” we enjoyed at a pub in Holland Park with goodies from Borough Market. I had just found this market in January of 2023 and was awestruck by it.

The Grill-Meister gives me carte blanche to plan our touristing in London, since I’ve been there so many times, and he was definitely game to check out Borough Market. He loves a good market as much as I do, and I had described it to him in detail in and posted about it in late June, right before our trip:

London’s Borough Market is a Feast in Every Way

We shopped slowly at the market and took in all the sights, sounds and smells (oh, the smells!) that I endeavored to describe in the post. We made our selections very carefully, some comestibles intended for our picnic later, and some handcrafted items, spices and chocolates as gifts for loved ones back home.

The question was: where should we go to eat our treats?

While London has many, many parks and even more benches, we didn’t encounter and couldn’t think of a place where we could sit outside that had a table—and we really wanted a table to enjoy the feast properly.

It was mid-afternoon by this time and The Grill-Meister suggested The Castle, where we had enjoyed a nightcap a couple of days earlier as we walked back to our hotel in Holland Park from the nearest London Underground stop. Check it out below.

The Grill-Meister opined that we could eat at an outside table at The Castle since the weather was so lovely, and that a bottle of red wine would complement our meal perfectly. He was right about that, but I didn’t think they would let us consume food on their premises that we’d purchased somewhere else, because The Castle also serves food, and the dining room is quite nice. The Grill-Meister persisted, though: “why would they care if we’re just eating outside and we buy the wine from them?”.

All cautious, I insisted that he speak with the bartender before we even sat down. I had visions of being thrown out, chased by bobbies with shrieking whistles and truncheons, and making the evening news back in the US, along the lines of: Houston Couple Shows Callous Disregard for Local Protocols and Tries to Bring Outside Food into Historic Pub. The shame!

I needn’t have worried! The Castle staff members were very gracious and welcomed us to enjoy our picnic there, and we happily unwrapped our Borough Market selections. Utterly delicious, it was!

The bartender at The Crown suggested the wine for us, a cheeky-smooth, inexpensive merlot from Washington State called The Velvet Devil, that was indeed a perfect complement for our charcuterie.

We took our time, eating and talking and eating some more, for over an hour, glad to be together on such a fine afternoon, reviewing the high points of a trip that was coming to an end the next day and fully understanding that we were sharing an experience that we would remember for a long time to come.

This is the stuff that fuels January dreaming, my friends.

Not My First Time at The Castle

Let’s digress a little. My history with The Castle pub goes waaaaaay back to 1999 when I was traveling to Europe every couple of months doing project reviews for my previous company and staying at the hotel in Holland Park. In 2005, I was traveling with a colleague and we stopped there while walking back to the hotel—the same one that The Grill-Meister and I stayed at this past summer, the same one I had been frequenting for work since 1999. Tammy had never had Bombay gin and credits me with introducing her to the Sapphire version at The Castle. It’s a nice memory of a quick stop to relax on our really busy 5-city trip (Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, Brussels, London). There are many other stories from that trip, yet to be told here in the blog.

That’s me on the left. Tammy has worked with me since 2000, with only a short break in 2013 when we changed companies, until I moved to a different position just last February. Whether or not we’re in the same group. we are always on each other’s success team.

I sent Tammy a text with pics when The Grill-Meister and I had our summer 2023 nightcap at The Castle, a couple of days before the picnic:

…and we had a nice chat about it when I got back to work.

When I was looking at the pictures today, the bar didn’t look the same at first. Then I realized that they painted the dark wood a whitewash color. I never would have thought of doing that to beautiful dark wood, but it looks great, don’t you think? This place is a class act.

The Story Of The Castle Holland Park (from their web site)

Dating back to the 1800s and with many of its handsome Victorian features intact, The Castle is one of Holland Park’s most established pubs, enduringly popular with local residents, workers and visitors alike. It still boasts its original Victorian tiled frontage, whilst its interior stylishly blends period features – including traditional wood panelling, etched glass and statement chandeliers – with contemporary touches.

Just a stone’s throw from Holland Park itself, and equi-distant from the cosmopolitan hubs of Shepherd’s Bush and Notting Hill, The Castle is an ideal spot for relaxation and refreshment after a walk around one of the area’s green spaces, a day exploring nearby Kensington with its peppering of prestigious museums, or just a glass of something special after a long day at work.

Expertly blending the traditional with the modern, The Castle is well-connected to the rest of the capital – just a few doors down from Holland Park tube station, this welcoming pub is extremely easy to find, but perhaps a little harder to leave…

In short, I can highly recommend The Castle. It’s a classic, it’s delightful and welcoming, and it’s a perfect backdrop for memories that inspire January dreaming.

January Dreaming Backstory

The inspiration for this series is my Mom’s longstanding loathing of the pitiful month of January. Like her, we’re dreaming of good times in warmer months, and celebrating those good times in this series. Read more about it in the post that kicked off the series in January of 2019, or check out the whole series here.

January Dreaming

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What’s the subject of YOUR January dreaming?

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