Delightful Don Restaurant History, and Pictures

The Don main White Room restaurant. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

The Don restaurant is in a quiet old courtyard off an alley near busy Fleet Street so named because was once alongside the Fleet which once tumbled downhill to the Thames a couple of blocks away downhill. You need your map or Satnav to guide you. It's only a short walk past interesting old and new buildings to the alley and you'll see a sign just before the courtyard.

The Travelodge And Bottle Openers

If the Don is beyond your budget, the Travelodge opposite has bargain bedrooms at under £100  (see Tripadvisor) and a wall of old bottle openers you can see from outside just before its entrance which faces the Don's enhance in the small courtyard. 

Old Bottle openers in Travelodge hotel window. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Sandeman House. Notice the e in the middle of the name. Sign for The Don restaurant which is at the right.

Doorway to The Don

You'll also see the name Sandeman on the building facing you between the Travelodge on your left and the The Don on your right.

History of The Don

The Don reflects the history of the location. The Don, pictured in black cape and wide brimmed flat top hat is the symbol still used and was the symbol of man who started the business in London way back in the 1700s importing port wine and spirits from Portugal, a Scotsman called Sandeman.  

If you turn right into the main restaurant and use the handy wide doored handicap accessible toilet on the ground floor you'll miss the other ground floor restaurant on the left and the historic device at the top of the stairs.

The stairs lead down to the cellars containing more restaurant rooms, handy for private functions. If you don't go down, admire the staircase, arched with old bricks.

Originally the cellars housed barrels which were raised and lowered. 

You can see the lifting device at the top of the stairs. If you go to Portugal you can visit a museum and learn more. 

Overhead is the device for lowering barrels to the cellars and raising them. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Downstairs, if you go down to the toilets, you will see arched bric roof rooms of the old cellars and one of the cellar restaurants rooms has a picture of the old days. 

At every turn are amusing wine bottle holders or other items to entertain then eye and mind of those who like old items and history. 

Inside there's a choice of restaurants. The main restaurant which seems to be the favourite is the one in the picture above, edged with wine bottles and colourful pictures. Yet we found it so quiet that you cannot hear anybody else and they cannot hear you. The tables are quite widely spaced. We went there on a summer Monday when there was a new chef. But on a Saturday night in season you might have trouble getting this restaurant.

Behind me in this first picture of the main restaurant, The White Room, is a wall of bottles. 

Separating diners in this half of The White Room from the diners other near the doorway is another semi-see-through wall of bottles you can just see on the left of the big picture.  

The Don is between three stations, Bank, Monument and Cannon Street.

The Don restaurant and The Sign of The Don

St Swithin's Lane, 

City of London

EC4N 8AD

Tel: 020 7626 2606

reservations@thedonrestaurant.com

www.thedonrestaurant.com

St Within's Wine Shippers is the other side of St Swithins Lane from The Don restaurant.

The also have wine delivery, tasting, shopping and shipping at:

One hour delivery anywhere in the City of London.

St Swithins Wine Shippers

11-12 St Swithins Lane

City of London EC4N 8AL

tel:020 7621 9972

email: info@stswithinswineshippers.com

www.stswithinsshippers.com

Wine shop and tasting trace.

TOURIST INFO

USEFUL WEBSITES
https://tfl.gov.uk (Transport for London)
https://art.tfl.gov.uk/projects/permanent-commission-by-daniel-buren/
www.visitlondon.com
www.londonpass.com
www.visitbritain.org

You can hire The Don and The Sign of The Don for birthdays, engagement parties, wedding receptions, for lunch, dinner and weekends for parties of up to 120 people.

More about food and drink at the Don in the next post. Also see previous posts on The Don. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Author

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Sweet wines, pudding wines, wine tasting events UK and France

The Wine Society is holding a wine tasting event Feb 13 2016 in Stevenage. They are offering tasting of eight sweet wines with a little sweet food to match each one. The price is £55 which sounds a lot, yet they are already sold out.

Yes, this event is already sold out but other events are available throughout the year, walk around wine tasting, seated tasting events and full dinners. You need to become a member of the Wine Society (£40 a year but you get £20 off your first wine order) or to go along with a member. If you join you receive a copy of their newspaper with features about wine as well as regular emails about events and the annual catalogues of wines to buy and bits and pieces for yourself or gifts, such as tea towels, aprons, wine glasses, bottle openers, cheese and crackers and seasonal novelties such as chocolates and Xmas cakes and puddings.

I love sweet wines and here's my research into how to remember which is which.

Pudding Wines
REISLING
A popular half sweet wine is Riesling.

GEWURTZTRAMINER
The German name means spicy.
HUNGARIAN TOKAI or TOKAY
This is likely to be a dry red unless the bottle says aszul (sweet).

Fortified wines include PORT from Portugal.

Finally, the sweetest, my favourite, most expensive often a tall thin bottle, half bottle, almost candle shape, often from the USA or Canada or New Zealand.

What's it all about?
When the grapes are picked. The longer you leave the grapes the sweeter they become, like all fruit, which starts sharp early in the season.

Cabinet -grapes picked in August, just for your (kitchen) cabinet
Spatlese - spat is late, l e s e means left (on the vine), S for Spat and S for September
Auslese - imagine an O shape handwrite A, October ' left out later
Beerenauslese = 4th category, longer four syllable word, B for better, picked in November

Trockenbeerenauslese - T r o c k dry, not dry wine but dry like a raisin, extra sweet, seven syllables. Finally
Ice wine - distinctive bottle, very sweet, pricey.

The most syrup

Bad enter too - Eiswein is overtaken in sweetness.

Here's a memory aid:
Kebab Shops Are Bad To Eat.
is a well known genomic, slightly misleading because Trockenbeerenauslese is sweeter than Iceman.

Kabinet, S p a t l e s e,  Beerenauslese, Trockenbeerenauslese, Eiswein (same initial letters).
This doesn't sound very politically correct, nor do I find it memorable. Words starting with the letter
K are are: Kettle, Kin, Kinky, Kinship, Kip, Kirsch, kind, kiss, kite, Kiwi, Koala,
Koalas snatch all bags to eat. Goals search all bags to eat.

K S A B E T or KSABIT.
Koalas such at big eucalyptus trees.
Koalas squat/sit /swing at big eucalyptus trees.

The Wine Society
Gunnels Wood Road, Stevenage, SG1 2BT.
TheWineSociety.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher and author.