Dan's
The retail shelf is the wine list: more than 600 bottles from Dan Long's own merchant business, Natty Boy Wines, drinkable at the table for £15 corkage (Hot Dinners).
Why go
Long sold fine wine in Australia and worked the floor at Love, Tilly Devine in Sydney before opening this on Tottenham Road, and he named it after Dan Murphy's, the Australian bottle-shop chain (Square Meal). The corkage model changes how you drink: at a normal wine bar the good bottles carry a three-times markup, so you stay in the by-the-glass shallows. Here the markup is a flat fifteen pounds, so the expensive shelf is suddenly in range. Two large communal tables take most of the room, with tinned fish, charcuterie and Australian snacks to eat. The team has a second, smaller Tottenham Road space coming as Side Piece, a sixteen-seat Greek cafe-bar with a Greek-leaning list and a terrace (London the Inside).
Order this / avoid
- Order: walk the shelf first and pick a bottle, then pay the £15 to drink it there. Tinned fish and a cheese to go alongside.
- Avoid: staying on the by-the-glass list all night. The shop is the list, and one good bottle plus corkage undercuts four glasses.
What locals & experts say
- Hot Dinners (opening report, Jan 2022): the bar is built around
relaxed consumption of wines that actually taste good, with a selection of small plates and cheeses on offer.
1 - Star Wine List: carries Dan's among London's wine destinations, listed as a neighbourhood wine bar and shop with a natural focus.2
- Local rec: on Jeff's list from a local, with his own verdict: "One of the best wine bars." REAL.
Good to know
- Timing: Tuesday noon to 6pm, Wednesday to Saturday from noon until late. Closed Sunday and Monday.
- Booking: none taken. Walk in.
- Price: $$ , and cheaper than that if you use the corkage properly.
- Groups: the two communal tables make it workable for a group of six or eight, with the caveat that you cannot hold them.
- Dietary: nothing published, so ask at the counter.
- Location: 2-4 Tottenham Rd, between Dalston Junction and Haggerston.
Craft signals (wine: a merchant's inventory is the list)
Two signals, both structural. The bar is the retail front of Natty Boy Wines, Dan Long's natural wine merchant business, so the list is whatever the importing arm currently holds and it turns as the inventory turns rather than on a printed cycle; the entry's own avoid-line is built on that, that the shelf is the wine list and fifteen pounds corkage gets a good bottle open. The second is the outside read: a Star Wine List entry as a London wine destination, which is the specialist register for this category rather than a crowd rating.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "One of the best wine bars. Local rec." REAL.
Verdict
should-visit — Make the detour for the economics as much as the wine. A working natural-wine merchant put his own six-hundred-bottle list on a shelf in Dalston and charges £15 to open any of it at the table, which means the ceiling on what you can drink here is far higher than a normal wine bar's. Dan Long's buying comes out of the Australian trade and Love, Tilly Devine, so the selection has a point of view. It stays below must-visit because the food is snacks and no critic has published a judgment.