On the left hand side at the bottom of the staircase leading to the basement of Camden’s vegan pizza place Purezza, is a plush scarlet velvet curtain just begging to be peeked behind. Edge gently through, and you slip into a French style cafe with three bench booths and four small wooden tables, where the music has district Parisian vibes and the waitresses are both amiable and chic.
We arrived early on a Friday evening, and had our choice of seats; we’d been allocated a table but by swapping around the beautifully handwritten reserved sign, we slid into a private booth near the curtain and settled in for several hours of hardcore cheese munching. All vegan, naturally, for it’s in making and selling fine artisan plant-based cheeses that La Fauxmangerie has earned its superb reputation.
Once a small shop near Brick Lane, their cheeses can now be found in any Waitrose branch, and they hold cheese and wine nights in Camden every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. These events get booked up early, and going there you can see why. The ambience alone is worth soaking up.
The owners have sourced an incredible list of small-batch wines that marry beautifully with a wide selection of their products, which range from traditionally fermented cheeses often with a nut base, to exquisite mould-ripened varieties. On offer are single portion samples of various cheeses and wine pairings, the ‘Showstopper’, which is a vegan Camembert, or – our choice – the garlic-laced vegan fondue complete with a freshly baked sourdough, seitan slices, and a selection of freshly grilled vegetables.
The fondue is served in a 1970s original brown set with large flowers. This stands atop an old-school oil burner which keeps everything warm, stops the liquid from turning solid, and takes me right back to the first time I was introduced to the dish as a small child in Hamburg. It feels as exotic now as it did then. By this point the place was filling up, and there was a real sense of excitement at the food on offer. There’s something about sharing plates, and particularly using those long slender forks to dip into the fondue, that encourages a sense of intimacy among dining companions. Bits of bread or grilled artichoke slip from the forks into the viscous cheesy deliciousness, encouraging a sense of playfulness as you fish around trying to recover your lost food. The fondue itself was almost perfect… rich and flavoursome, although by the end of it, the saltiness of this melted cheese and wine dish meant we’d drunk two litres of water.
By the end of the fondue, pretty much everything was empty, except our stomachs. That said, with this particular companion there is always room for dessert. She had two scoops of gelato while I went for the American style cheesecake. I’ve had this before in the upstairs section, and it lived up to my memory. I tend to avoid this expression, but honestly it tastes just like the creamy dairy-based option on which it is moulded: baked on a pastry base and garnished with fruit puree.
I was driving, and she was cycling, so we stuck to a can of cider each, but the wine choices looked amazing. Next time.
Bardo Burner 