London Shell Co: All aboard the boat that rocks W2

Fay feels like she's walking on water at this floating restaurant
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Fay Maschler7 December 2017

It is a clear, bitingly cold night and actor (resting, we must assume) Harry Lobek — partner with his sister Leah in the London Shell Co — is doing his health-and-safety shtick aboard the canal boat The Prince Regent.

Exits in case of fire are pointed out but the one near the kitchen where a fire is most likely to start is not recommended. If the boat takes on water and sinks it will not be far to the banks. Harry comforts us by saying that as the canal is only about a metre deep it will be possible for us to walk, so no necessity to swim. He promises rescued bottles of wine so that we are consoled as we wait for landlubber transport.

Harry knows about wine. As well as acting — at one time he toured with the National Theatre production of War Horse — he has worked as a sommelier at Pollen Street Social alongside one of my catering heroes, Laure Patry.

I arrive before my date — he is not actually that, just a very dear friend, but I note that this is a date-night environment complete with candles stuck in wax-dripped wine bottles. I decline the notion of sitting with other couples and soon we set sail even though that is obviously the wrong word. The wide-beam boat, which has been working the canals for the past 30 years, is heading for Camden Lock via Little Venice and Primrose Hill.

Noble specimens nicely gilded: Orkney scallop with seaweed and speck
Adrian Lourie

Moseying along the narrow waterway — fortunately nothing seems to come in the opposite direction — I marvel at the number of permanently moored barges and peer at the glimpses of life lived aboard by “the creatures of neither firm land nor water”, as they were described by Penelope Fitzgerald in her haunting 1979 Booker Prize-winning novel Offshore. Here is a present to yourself: read Offshore then book dinner on The Prince Regent.

Unbidden comes a sparkling aperitif based on Julian Temperley’s Somerset Cider Brandy. The five-course evening menu is fixed and starts with Morecombe Bay oysters. My only food “allergy” is oysters. This has been pointed out by my date when booking but Harry has taken him up on his ungallant offer to eat mine.

I content myself with having more than my fair share of angel-hair fries served in a carton decorated with stars.

On the grounds that we must encourage Turkish wine-growers working in what is now a dismal political climate — and for the more tenuous reasoning that this fast-becoming-less-than-perfect-date “had a good Turkish red the other day” — we drink a glass of Pasaeli Yapincak 2015 (all wines are offered by the glass and bottle). My loyalty to Turkish wine-growers becomes a little strained, although there is a picture of fish on the label, which seems apposite, and this wine is actually a rarity on lists.

Much more satisfying is a Joan Giné Buil y Giné white from Spain’s Priorat region. A bottle of that (at £32) and then a glass of red with the Baron Bigod cheese — Suffolk Brie, you could call it — served with Medjool dates would have been the sensible and more economical way to go.

Menus change at each dinner so what follows can be read as the gist of the approach. Orkney scallops garnished with seaweed and speck are noble specimens nicely gilded. Vegetable pickles are the uplift for pieces of mackerel deep-fried in a feathery batter. If I had to pick the star of the menu it would be the cured Dorset char served with a tight egg yolk that might have been mildly salted — it still broke into a sauce — with truffle oil that for once didn’t seem otiose.

Full steam ahead: co-owners Harry and Leah Lobek
Adrian Lourie

It is only later that I discover that stone bass can be farmed. I imagine the species always playing hard to get in the deep to justify its other name, Atlantic wreckfish. But the tranche served garnished with choucroute and a bowl of boiled and buttered Anya potatoes (to the relief of the Irish date) may well have been lurking around drowned barges; it has snowy resilience. Dessert is vanilla set cream (aka panna cotta) with poached rhubarb and toasted almonds; lovely. Cheese carries a £5 supplement — and a rationale for red wine.

Stuart Kilpatrick and Leah Lobek head the galley kitchen that manages to send out food ideally paced for the journey and the amount of time you want to peer out and marvel at seeing parts of London from an unfamiliar perspective. The date makes the point that a seafood casserole would make an easy centrepiece that could be served properly hot to counteract the unavoidably cold atmosphere — exacerbated by customers scurrying out onto the front deck to smoke.

I loved the event. Not once did I feel like a tourist, just a Londoner walking on water. On the website there is a menu for Valentine’s Day. If you can’t get Venice organised… have your date night here.

Static lunch Wed-Fri noon-2.30pm. Cruising dinner Wed-Fri 7pm-10.30pm. A la carte lunch with modest wine about £30pp. Set-price dinner £45pp plus drinks and service.

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