Night Cafe Happenings
Night Cafe happenings are always pretty special - and we have a brilliant evening planned for our next gathering on Friday the 6th of November…
We’re going to be joined by Eli Davies, author of The Spinster Cookbook for an excellent evening of food, chatter and community….
After reading The Spinster Cookbook - Victoria’s Head Chef - Emma Tophill-Reed has created a gorgeous Friday Supper inspired by the pages of the book… Come solo, come as a group and come together for a cosy Night Cafe in Victoria’s Clubhouse
Our friends at Juno Books will also be hosting a November nighttime bookshop - where of course The Spinster Cookbook will be available to buy and signed by Eli.
Tickets are £5 - and we’ll gift you a glass of November cheer on arrival - from there - enjoy hearing from Eli, sip cocktails, order food, browse books and have a gorgeous night with us!
Arrivals are from 18.30 with good time to get settled before the evening starts at 19.00
The Spinster Cookbook
‘a profoundly relatable culinary memoir of 00s life ’ — Rebecca May Johnson
"Astute, deeply researched and tenderly written, The Spinster Cookbook will reframe everything you think you know about cooking, community and care.’ — Ruby Tandoh
The Spinster Cookbook is a piercing exploration of what it means to cook for one in a society designed for couples and families. With sharp cultural insight, Eli Davies takes us on a culinary tour of the single woman’s kitchen, a space shaped as much by a search for freedom as by appetite.
The kitchen has always been a complex space for women: a place of labour and gendered expectations, as well as a site of nourishment, care and company. But how does this change when you’re alone, not cooking for family or friends, but simply for yourself?
Eli Davies explores what happens when food is uncoupled from domestic duty and romantic relationships and what it means to cook (or not) for yourself and by yourself. How does this shape your mealtimes, the way you shop for food, the kitchen equipment you use, and your relationship to cleaning up and looking after yourself?
With warmth, humour and insight, The Spinster Cookbook explores shopping and leftovers, solo meals and dinner parties for one, joy and grief and the politics of living on your own.
This is a book about making a home in the face of housing precarity, loneliness, heartbreak and social norms, and finding independence, pleasure and self-expression through cooking.
It’s a cookbook of sorts, and a manifesto for living differently.
About Eli
Eli Davies is a writer and researcher whose writing on culture, politics and literature has been published widely, including in the Guardian, Vittles, Tribune and the Tangerine.
She also co-edited Under My Thumb: Songs that Hate Women and the Women Who Love them, an anthology of women's music writing published in 2017. She lives in London.
A Friday Night Supper
Order as much or as little as you’d like on the evening
Snacks will be served first, pasta/plates will be served when ready!
SNACKS (2 pieces per plate)
Nigella’s devilled eggs with garlic toast (v, g)
Lomo & manchego rollitos
Gordal olive, guindilla pepper & emmental skewers (v)
PLATES (order 1 - 2 per person)
Spanish tortilla - with garlic alioli
Brushetta - winter tomatoes & marinated onions on toast (v, ve, g)
Grilled aubergine with salsa verde (v, ve)
PASTA etc (order 1 per person)
House-made cavatelli with:
Puttanesca sauce (capers, olives, anchovies & tomatoes) finished with Parmaggio Reg (g)
House-made basil & Spenwood pesto with pine nuts (v, g, contains nuts)
‘NYE’ ham & butterbean casserole with cavolo nero
(v) = vegetarian (ve*) = can be made vegan on request (g) = contains gluten
The Clubhouse Bar
We’ll be shaking and making some delicious November tipples - boozy, low and 0% cocktails as ever - a full list of great drinks from wine to beer to cocktails served at the table
Good To Know!
All bookings are through our online shop - just leave us a note in the comments box at checkout if you’d like to join us earlier and if you have any dietary requirements we need to know about
