Ballie Ballerson is such a brilliantly simple concept, you might wonder why you didn’t think of it in the first place. Luckily, someone has and the whole of London is thankful for this charming, quirky bar. It isn’t the easiest bar to spot on Stoke Newington Road, Dalston but if you take notice of the black-painted entrance, there is a small bag of inflatable balls dangling above the door. The security might need more training though as he didn’t quite understand “ballie ballerson” but it was yes for the ball pit bar.
The decor is very Dalston and suitably creative and low-fi. Their logo which is a hashtag is plastered throughout the room in multi-colour glory. You know, they haven’t spent countless millions on the decorations but what they have done is created a bar which feels joyous and reminds you of your childhood.
Their cocktail list is cheekily divided up into an under 10 yrs old section and an over 10 yrs old section. The under 10 section still has alcohol but are sweeter such as the skittles sour: think tequila, foam and tasting that rainbow. However, the more popular options seems to be their bottomless weekend offer. It is £35 and you get unlimited Prosecco and rum punch as well as food.
The food isn’t going to win any culinary awards; it is simply Spaghetti with meatballs; but it does taste very hearty and in keeping with the ‘children’s party’ theme. Like their cocktail selection, it does taste quite sweet but you do get an unlimited supply should you feel peckish after your exertions in the ball pit.
They also supply a selection of mini-pancakes for desserts. It is surprisingly addictive as they are made in a petite portion size, which you can easily have 10 before you’ve managed to instagram that ball pit photo you’ve been busy photoshopping before letting your friends know how great the venue is.
The ball pit is downstairs and might surprise you in terms of the size and depth of the pit. They claim to have used over 200K balls and has enough depth for you to hide your body inside the pool of balls. They even have a ball cleaning machine called GobbleMuffin that can clean 18,000 balls an hour. They have other inflatables and foam toys for guests to relive those childhood days. On peak nights, they have a DJ playing techno, funk and bass. It’s hardly surprising, getting a bottomless ticket to Ballie Ballerson is currently one of the hottest tickets in town.
Photo courtesy of Stacey Hurst.
baldwin@townfish.com