Authentique Epicerie & Bar
Every six weeks the whole shop changes country: one French-speaking region takes over the by-the-glass list, the deli counter and the guest-chef night, drawn from a cellar the owners now put at more than 1,200 bottles.
Why go
Four Frenchmen out of the wine trade opened this on Fortess Road: Alexandre Bal came from the merchants Yapp Brothers and Matthieu Sevagen from Majestic in Mayfair, with Amaury Levisalles and Thomas Guidez (Hot Dinners). The buying goes past France into Luxembourg, Switzerland and Algeria, which is where the list stops being a wine bar list and starts being an education. Everything on the shelves is drinkable in, so a bottle you would take home costs about what it costs at the counter. Harden's frames the scale as 700 wines and 75 beers of the French-speaking world; the venue's own count is higher, and the honest answer is that it is more than you can work through.
Order this / avoid
- Order: whatever the month's region is pouring by the glass, £5 to £16.50, with a five-cheese board around £18 (Time Out). Saturdays from 3pm they run eight wines from that region with cheese, charcuterie and bread.
- Avoid: treating it as a restaurant. Harden's:
Food is secondary - decent, but basically an accompaniment to the outstanding selection of reasonably priced wines.
2
What locals & experts say
- Time Out (5/5, Laura Richards):
An edgy space, with geometric white tiling, pendant lights and a goldfish bowl made from an old TV set.
1 - Harden's (2023 and 2024): food 3, service 3, ambience 3, average spend £54, with
Like a French tapas bar, this Tufnell Park showcase celebrates the wines (700) and beers (75) of the French-speaking world.
2 - Local rec: Jeff has it down as an Instagram wine-shop rec. REAL.
Good to know
- Timing: closed Monday. The bar runs from mid-afternoon Tuesday and Wednesday and from late morning Thursday to Sunday; the kitchen is a narrower window, dinner Tuesday to Saturday, lunch Thursday to Saturday, roasts on Sunday afternoons.
- Booking: worth reserving for the Saturday tasting and for Sunday roast; the bar takes drop-ins.
- Dietary: no allergen, gluten-free or vegan statement is published by the venue, so treat it as unknown and ask.
- Location: 114-116 Fortess Rd, between Tufnell Park and Kentish Town stations, roughly five minutes from either.
Craft signals (wine: a monthly region and a weekly tasting)
Two signals, both stated and both drink-side. The by-the-glass offer rotates by Francophone region every month, so the glass list is rebuilt twelve times a year against a cellar of over 1,200 wines with more than 30 open at any time, and the Saturday eight-wine tasting is a standing weekly programme rather than an event. Prices from five pounds to sixteen fifty a glass on a list that deep is the other tell: this is a merchant's inventory poured at merchant margins rather than a bar list marked up.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Insta wine shop rec" REAL.
Verdict
could-visit — Solid, and it does one thing better than anywhere in north London: a Francophone list that changes region every six weeks, over a thousand bottles deep, sold at shop prices to drink in. The kitchen is support, which Harden's has scored 3/5 twice, so this is a drinking destination with food attached. Worth the trip if you want to taste a region properly in an afternoon; not a reason to cross the city otherwise.