First of all I want to say a MASSIVE thank you to The Fire Station for hosting me and for letting me taste their Christmas menu- which was really great!

For what could be another soulless ‘commuter friendly’ bar, The Fire Station has really built on its history. The establishment should be applauded for the lovely details included in the extensively refurbished venue.

The original Southwark County Council fire brigade building took a year to renovate and has a spectacular new stylish interior, with fire hose ceiling lights, a replica panel of the Great Fire of London, and a rare vintage fire extinguisher, displayed proudly in the restaurant area.

Going further on their fire station theme my hosts for the evening offer really fantastic and original smoked cocktails which are concocted on site with a smoking gun, where the cocktails are prepared in small batches.

On the menu first, a starter of sweet and smoky, sticky chicken wings which, with a squeeze of lime, were finger liciking good!!! (If not a little messy!)

After we cleaned up the chicken wings, we moved onto the festive pizza, about which I felt a little dubious as it had PARSNIP on it…however, I was pleasantly surprised.  Also, the addition of small blobs of sweet cranberry and earthy chestnuts made this pizza really something special

Next up was the absolute pièce de résistance -The Festive burger 🎄🎄

Spiced buttermilk fried turkey breast, with bacon-wrapped pork & sage patty and cranberry mayo *drool*

Alongside, I sipped the punchy smoked cinnamon old fashioned (with a funky Ice ball!! I’m easily pleased). This was with Bulleit bourbon, which was really smoky and divine.

As an aside, this delightful drink set off a food blogging colleague sat beside me to tell us about a trip to Kentucky and the Carolina’s, where she was able to try many local authentic Bourbons…jealous? Me? Nah!

We finished off the evening with some indulgent warm chocolate brownies and a really interesting and informative tour of the venue.

Fact-The onsite British pizza ovens can hold 20 pizzas each!

Tuesday night – done! Wishing you all a happy first day of Christmas  💋