The courtyard bar at the Double Club

The 1960s were the decade of Swinging London and if 2009 is anything to go by, the next ten years might be dubbed the era of Popping London. Boutiques (Pam Hogg, PPQ, Azzaro), bars (Flash, Alcoholic Architecture, Bluebird) and galleries (Proud Gallery, LCF at Carnaby) are all getting in on the zeitgeisty act. London has always been a city of dynamic and rapid change and with the emergence of a twitterholic generation with a seriously limited attention span, it would seem that the idea of being ‘famous for fifteen minutes’ has been accepted and embraced. And with the capital’s economic reputation in tatters,  this appears to be is one canny marketing trend; it cuts out the need to spend wads of cash on expensive rent too.

The Double Club is a venture from the Fondazione Prada which ups the pop-up stakes, combining art, design, music, food, drink and philanthropy. The project was conceived by German artist Carsten Höller (you may remember him for the  slides installation at the Tate Modern) and aims to create a dialogue between Congolese and Western cultures which echoes London’s multicultural nature. Housed in a Victorian warehouse just around the corner from Angel tube, the restaurant, bar and dance club all find Congolese and Western art, desing, cuisine and cocktails equally represented.

There is a palpable sense of excitement about the venue and when we arrived both the restaurant and the bar space were full of London’s bright young things. The dining area is elegant and eclectic, a softly-lit fusion of brightly-coloured artwork, picnic chairs and Kram and Weisshaar’s beautiful tables.

The Double Club restaurant

The menu is split into two, offering Western or Congolese food, the latter of which the waiters helpfully explained. We opted to go African and try some of the Congo’s culinary offerings. The idea is to order a selection of dishes to share and we went for pondu (manioc leaves and smoked fish cooked in palm oil), kossa kossa (large spicy shrimps), bitekuteku (green vegetables with African aubergine and smoked salted fish) and chicken bouakee, accompanied with fried plantain and rice. If you are someone who gets nervous about pronouncing dishes correctly in restaurants, you should forget about any complexes if you’re visiting the Double Club! It’s really quite difficult to judge the food as neither myself nor my dining partner profess to know much about Congolese cuisine. As a confessed foodie, I am always interested to try something new, and although the dishes were certainly flavoursome, they were rather heavy and left us too full to enjoy any of the desserts on the menu. Unfortunately we weren’t advised that the Double Club suggests combining the menus as this might have been the opportunity for successful flavour fusion; the shrimps (which were divine) would have been perfectly accompanied by a salad for example. If you aren’t tempted by a culinary voyage, the Western menu offers modern British cuisine including a Barnsley lamb chop hotpot, organic rump of beef burger and steamed pollock.

By the time we finished our meal, the courtyard bar was buzzing and the delicious scent of Congolese barbecue filled the air. If you decide that dining in the DC restaurant is a bit too grown up, the bar serves food as well as an extensive drinks list with Turbo King beer and cocktails including  fruity creations such as the Flaming Congo: a combination of strawberry, cucumber, apple juice, chillies and lime. If you feel the need to dance off the calories, the Double Club disco operates on from Thursday to Saturday when the DC DJs spin Congolese and Hoxtonese tunes. Live music also features with African sounds as well as some of the East Ends finest; Mikki Most and Princess Julia have appeared and this month the Queens of Noize and Ndjibu of Nazareth are scheduled to perform.

And as if the eclectic design, interesting food and fashion forward music weren’t enough, 50% of the profits from Double Club are donated to UNICEF and City of Joy, a charity that helps abused women and children in the Congo. If you’re one of the cool (and charitable) kids, you only have a limited amount of time left to enjoy the Double Club’s take on Popping London; the DC closes its doors on July 12th.

http://www.thedoubleclub.co.uk/