Sager + Wilde opened on Hackney Road in 2013 with a list of natural and low-intervention wines assembled with the seriousness of a specialist importer rather than a neighbourhood bar. The room is long and narrow — a wine-rack wall, globe pendant lights, bar stools along the counter, and tables for people who arrived with the intention of staying longer than one glass. The food programme is simple and changes with the wines being poured; the service has the quality of people who selected the bottles themselves and know why. In the east London context of operations that last two years before becoming something else, a bar still running the same programme after a decade is itself editorial.
Hackney Road, London, United Kingdom