Firefly

Clapham Common’s branch of this easy-going mini chain provides a useful drinking & meeting haunt for locals who prefer to escape affluent Abbeville Village. Well-priced, reasonably good cocktails, a creditable wine list & plenty of bottled beer are further inducements. Outside, a wide pavement gives ample scope for punters to relax with a view of the traffic whizzing past the Common. Inside, the comfortable surroundings make a congenial bolthole when the summer picnic gets rained off. The menu in the cosy restaurant at the back has recently undergone a few changes. Rather than the burgers, nachos & ribs that Firefly barflies have come to expect, you can now order Thai green curries as hot as you like, noodles & kanum jeeb (chicken & prawn dumplings). Saturday-night DJs also raise the temperature.