On a balmy summer Sunday, Tim Scorer and his girlfriend Emma Jarvis welcome brunch guests to their spacious London flat.
After greeting them, the couple direct their visitors to the garden — a stunning space outfitted with a wood-fired oven — for cocktails and mingling. The scene looks like a typical gathering among friends, except that none of the guests has ever met the young hosts before.
Scorer and Jarvis run The Old Hat Club, one of London’s latest underground restaurants. These supper clubs, which grew from a handful a year ago to close to 100 today, are becoming a favored way for London hipsters to satisfy their exacting palates.
They are part of the British capital’s vibrant underground scene, which ranges from word-of-mouth dance clubs to booze-filled nights where trendy Londoners play Rebel Bingo, a raucous version of the old-fashioned game, on a dance floor throbbing with heavy metal music.