Here at Square Meal we love a United States food pile-up and, judging by the amount of hits we get for hamburger pictures, ya’ll do too. The 4th July is the perfect historical excuse to celebrate America’s escape from, um, this country and nosh like you’re in Nashville. Here’s how to spend a day in London doing just that. Freedom fry, anyone?
Start your day the right way, with a big ol’ ‘Merican Bloody Mary at Balthazar in Covent Garden. Head barman Brian Silva is a Boston native (we just interviewed him), so you’re in safe all-American hands at this US interpretation of a French bistro. If it’s been a particularly heavy night, there’s always the Balthazar-sized option (above). You might want to share that one round a bit, partner. Then wobble outside on to the cobbles for a Sandwich Américain (a grilled pain au lait with a beef filling) from the restaurant’s temporary stall.
Skip round the corner to Christopher’s on Wellington Street for some grilled Maine lobster with avocado and shrimp salsa (above). It’s truly a thing of beauty, while this Grade-II listed Victorian building isn’t too shabby either.
By now you’ll have warmed up your stomach nicely, so walk a few blocks (good luck finding those in London) to Smith & Wollensky (above) on the Strand. London’s latest US import is already an established steakhouse group in the States, so you can trust them to know a thing or two about grilling a great steak.
It’s time for pudding y’all, so waddle over to Spuntino in Soho, pull up a bar stool and order a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (above). The bread is actually peanut butter ice cream and the ‘jelly’ is ‘jam’, for all your strict anglophiles.
You are probably hitting your stride now, so it’s off to Dirty Bones in Chelsea for a pre-dinner snack. The 4th July burger (above) is 6oz of beef burger, lashings of Monterey Jack and craft beer cheese, a layer of Coca-Cola onion rings, onion confit and onion seeds – yours for £9.
Hungry? Of course you are. If not, just remember this is all in the name of freedom, because it’s time for dinner at The Lockhart in Marylebone. You may need somebody to take you in a wheelbarrow by this point, but you won’t want to miss out on the Southern fried chicken and collard greens on offer from Mississippi-born chef Brad McDonald.
Before you go home to collapse into an American food coma, you need a digestif. We recommend a trip to Hawskmoor Spitalfields’s bar (above) for Buffalo wings-inspired nugget bar snacks and Woodford Reserve Kentucky bourbon drinks.
If you are still utterly famished, click here for a full list of
the best North American restaurants in London.
This article was published 3 July 2015