Puma Yard and Social

A pop-​up bar run by the global sports company Puma to create a kind of beach-​bar-​like outside yard plus dancehall-​like social club in East London for the duration of the London Olympics to attract Team Jamaica there as well as locals. Their choice of Brick Lane for the Yard rather than central London fits their young urban image well. The outside yard is spacious and well laid out with small tables and large bean bags on fake grass, accessible from around the left hand side of the building, and with a number of food counters around the yard, all selling fresh Jerk chicken, rice-​and-​peas, plantains, etc a decent sized paper plate of these was £7.50. Finish it off with a ‘Marley coffee’, rum punches (sometime 2 for £6 offer) or de rigueur can of Red Stripe.
The inside Social is accessible from the front, by separate ticket booked online (these are limited but free), and has later but not late hours, 7 until 11ish rather than the lunch-9.30 times outside local licensing rules apparently. But it’s thoughtfully laid out inside for a London-​Jamaican vibe bar, and I can’t wait for one of the best nights there one with Bob Marley’s daughter hosting, another allegedly with Ussain Bolt as its star guest. The one downer for me is the Yard’s upstairs VIP area hiding virtually all the art on display and its own guest list within a guest list. The only Ussain autograph available to most will be on the cool £15 printed T-​shirt in the Puma shop!