In town
Oswald's
Wine club
About
Robin Birley opened Oswald's on Albemarle Street in 2018, out of a wish for old vintages at fairer prices, and named it after his grandfather, the portrait painter Sir Oswald Birley. It is a dining club: the wine list is priced at or below what a shop would ask, members bring their own bottles without corkage, and each can keep up to twelve in the cellar.
It is also the hardest door on this list. There is no form, nothing published and no social media.
What sets it apart
- Wine is the whole idea: a list without the restaurant mark-up, no corkage on your own bottles, the bottles you couldn't justify anywhere else
- Room in the cellar for twelve bottles of your own
- Invitation only: a proposer, a seconder and a committee, so it takes a friend inside
- Nothing is published, fees included
Photos
Getting in
Route
By invitation: a member proposes you, another seconds
Decided by
The committee
Try it first
As the guest of a member
Fees
A year
Not published; on application
The house
Wine
The list at or below what a shop asks, no corkage on your own bottles, twelve of them kept in the cellar; the house champagne is Krug
Inside
A dining room and bar after the Hall of Mirrors, Murano chandeliers, a cupola up to a cigar terrace
Kitchen
Gianluca Cossu, who came from 5 Hertford Street; upstairs La Loma, South American
Health
None
Since
2018
Address
Oswald's
From home
- 19 minTaxi · 7.6 kmWithout traffic; on a weekday evening rather 29 to 39.
- 40 minTube and busBus 46 to Swiss Cottage, Jubilee line to Green Park, 16 minutes on foot