SOURCE Battersea, Ransomes Dock Restaurant London – The Basement
Johan and Elsa De Jager’s SOURCE took over the previous site of the Ransome’s Dock restaurant – which I believe was there for about 21 years and only closed because the previous owners were getting a bit bored and wanted to go and read more books or something. SOURCE’s MO? “Seasonal. Simple. Social” – which they seem to be doing pretty well. I believe they’re going with the ‘farm to table’ approach – which means a small, selective and everchanging menu of seasonal and (very) locally sourced British cuisine. There’s a larger, and well thought out selection of drinks (think happy Americans coming for Happy Hour and a temporary wine menu ENTIRELY devoted to Riesling, fuck yeah!)
SOURCE itself is actually a pretty tiny venue – I’m not sure quite how many covers there are in the restaurant area, but the whole thing seems kinda streamlined with mechanical efficiency. Service here is probably the speediest I have EVER seen, they make McDonalds look like complete slackers, and none of the wait staff miss a beat. It’s fucking crazy, I don’t know how they do it that fast. They also have a basement, which they call *drum roll* ‘The Basement* – but I think would be best called the ‘subterranean industrial party room’ (because thats what it is and that’s what it looks like, OK?)
Other cool stuff at SOURCE includes an open kitchen where you can watch and listen to a bearded chef as he loses his shit, an awesome waiter and splendid human being called Janos, and the fact that they actually have their own freshwater spring (one of the very few that you can find in London). They filter, bottle and sell water from this spring – giving about 80% of the profits to the charity, Magic Breakfast, whilst spending the other 20% on the upkeep of the well and filtration system. I wanted to go and see it but it wasn’t looking tidy enough so they distracted me with said Basement (which is full of wierd shit like antique gramophones and ancient (yet functioning) Gaggia coffee machines). Excit