Camp and Furnace
“Can’t be arsed going all the way to the CUC, it’s miles away. Lets just stay in town.” *CUC closes down* *Camp & Furnace does some great gigs* “HEY EVERYONE LET’S GO TO CAMP AND FURNACE, IT’S ONLY DOWN THE ROAD!”
Camp and Furnace is an incredible music/arts space just off Jamaica street. It also does foods. INCLUDING BREAKFAST!
Minute Man – “Making my Toast debut, i was looking forward to sampling the Camp & Furnace cuisine. My experience till now had been some good free salmon and a rapidly consumed Chorizo burger, so with a make-you-own breakfast concept and maverick inclusion of cheese with a fry up, my interest was piqued. The ordering process seemed a bit stilted (not sure the staff are used to big orders) but i opted for a bit of everything and in due course it arrived, piled high on the plate.
After a pause to feign politeness and with the steely gaze of the Guardian Fox burning into the back of my neck, i tucked in. It tasted good, nice balance of its parts – tasty meat, nicely melty cheese. Highlight was the doorstep toast and spiced beans, lowlight the slightly overdone poached egg and small tomato.
Overall, great, but as revealed at the end, pricey! £12 for a fry-up with coffee and OJ is a lot. For the price and paltry tomato, theys a gonna lose some points…
7.5/10 – Smouldering.”
Grill Scoff Herring – “It was a shaky start to the day for Grimbags, due to a 6 am finish to my Friday night & ingesting a small amount of the hottest chili on earth. Nevertheless, spirits were high, or at least everyone else was high on the spirit of my breath. New members were a welcome sight but we lamented the absence of Jester Fortune, Johnny Concrete & Jungle Trouble.
Camp & Furnace is looking very nice since it’s…well you can’t really call it a refurb, it’s more of just a furb. Having had a few meals here already I knew we were in for top notch ingredients & for them to be cooked with care.
A highlight for me was seeing Eight Foot’s Bongo Friendee (and that’s not a euphemism). As anticipated (and it was anticipated for a bit too long for my liking) the food was a winner, I can’t say more really it was a blob on breakkie & the home made beans get a massive thumbs up. Actually a reasonable price for the ingredients which are all local & artisan (buzz word).
8/10 The Fox’s Nostrils.”
Mr. Kirk Douglas – “Camp & Furnace was a joy to behold. With a solid turnout, even the busiest of restaurants would struggle to bring all the orders out quickly – and these ingredients were not to be rushed. With 3 n00bs and Eight Foot’s Bongo of Beauty pimping itself outside the C&F this had the recipe for a Toast of the highest order.
I went for the kind of full English, which consisted of all the parts to a full English and wasn’t disappointed. The beans were spicy and tasty, the egg perfect, the sausage riddled with flavour and the bacon just right. Bearing in mind that I was quite hungover and the heat on that particular day was causing most of us to feel a bit peaky, when it came it was completely wolfed down.
Where value for money was concerned it was fantastic…for the food. £5.20 for possibly the tastiest Toast I’ve had, however the thing that docked it points had to be the £4 added on for the pint of orange which was outrageous! Lessons will be learnt, so I will of course be back and be bringing Mrs. Douglas, however the table water will suffice alongside a coffee! This brings a lovely 7.5 out of 10, losing 1 point for the OJ.”
The Steward – “Toastal titillation.. A beautiful sunny day gave me a real spring in my step as I sauntered down to meet up with the toast totties at Camp and Furnace. We saddled up at a massive table in a massive room in this lovely venue and the banter was free flowing and care free.
The menu had us all scratching our craniums as it appeared that toast was £1.80 but bacon on toast was £2.00, whaaaaaaaaaat 20p for bacon, was it real? Another saunter over to the bar saw all this confusion lanced as we were offered a big massive breakfast, homemade beans (painstaking work I am sure), bacon, sausage, egg (any which way you like), tomato and a choice of breads that were to be transformed in to toast. I went for sourdough but then I got horrendously mixed up when the breakies eventually turned up and got tucked in to brown bread and into Faz’s sausage! Back on track, I promptly replaced like for like and swept through my meal with a steady gusto.The egg positively oozed yolk, a fine poached effort. The ‘banger’ was glorious and the beans were a testament to the artisan skills of the chef.
More surprises were in store when I paid the bill, I was expecting to break a ’20’, so it was great to clock in at under £7.00. At this point I should add that I had a sparkling water too because I still had a toothpasty taste in my mouth when I went to order my drink and pure orange juice added to that is an abomination.
I loved the Camp and Furnace breakfast. It is hard to see where they could do better really, but I will go for an 9 out of 10 with a 1 point penalty for staff being a bit overwhelmed by the toast lads.”
Terry Snatchett – “Yes, we waited quite a long time for our brekkie, but on such a lovely day it didn’t really matter. The place was looking good and sparkled in the sunshine and as I spotted some jugs of water on the large central table ready for the taking, I leant forward and to my horror found slices of cucumber floating amongst the ice! I was quite aghast that it was presumed I would like the fact that chopped up ‘Devil’s Willy” (as it’s called in my house) was tainting the high quality H2O. So, cappuccino it was!
The brekkie was great and the build-your-own style a new one for us, although that avoided the prospect of seeing how they would do on the ‘Swap Test’. I think I was the only one that went for a fried egg, which made me feel a bit common amongst all you poachers.
There was a rumour going round that I didn’t finish my brekkie because of the heat and I was a bit of a wimp but I’m pleased to report that I am glad I didn’t finish it, as otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to fit it into my rather stunning and posterior hugging Eurovision-Pants that evening!
8.5/10 – on par with Rhubarb.”
Overall Score – 8.1/10
Final Thoughts – SO MANY WORDS. But seriously, I love Camp and Furnace and I wish it every success. It’s an amazing venue with so much potential, I’ve already been to some fantastic gigs there and I’m very glad the food is up to par.