"If country and folk are your things, head out to Leyton, home to the excellent What's Cookin' club"
Sharon O'Connell TIME OUT.

The story so far...

In 2004 we sprung up at The Plough in Walthamstow. Stayed there a bit. Then we moved to upstairs at The Sheep Walk in Leytonstone. We stayed there quite a while. Then we were forced to move to Leytonstone Ex-Servicemens Club in Leytonstone (whilst continuing to do shows downstairs at The Sheep Walk). We did that for a while. Then we moved back to upstairs at The Sheep Walk. We stayed there for a good bit. Then at the same time we started doing some shows at The North Star in Leytonstone.

During all this we started doing the annual Leytonstone Festival Sunday Picnics at Henry Reynolds Gardens. Then we left The Sheep Walk for good in August 2010 and continued doing some occasional shows at The North Star, eventually moving there full-time early 2011, as well as starting a stage at the Brentwood Beer & Music Festival, and doing some shows at Arch 1 in West Ham. Somewhere along the line we also launched Stove Pony Records with our lovely friends at Mule Freedom. You keeping up here?

Then in September 2011 we started to manage our own pub -

The Birkbeck Tavern, in Leyton E11.

The Birkbeck is a very lovely old East End boozer, with possibly one of the nicest beer gardens yer ever gonna come across. It's 5 a min walk from Leyton tube, or about 10 min walk from Leytonstone High Road. Check out the how to get there page for more info on directions. It's a great looking pub with loads of character, normally does at least 3 cask ales, and has a lovely function room upstairs (oh, we do love a function room, we do). But here, check out the Birkbeck Tavern page (coming soon) for more good stuff on the pub.

What does this mean for What's Cookin' shows? Well, since we only took over a short while ago we're still sorting out our new regular What's Cookin' nights at the Birkbeck. But one thing we can say for sure is that yer regular weekly Wednesday's will be back soon! And we'll also be doing some other regular, and occasional, nights as well. Most shows will be in the function room, with some stuff down in the bar, and of course out in the beer garden when weather permits. Keep up to date by checking the musical menu.

Most shows will continue to be free with the voluntary whip round to pay the headline acts. Please be generous! We will also continue to do the odd one-off special now and again - check our menu for those. And we sometimes do a secret show or two - you need to be on the mailing list to hear about those shows - so get signed up! There is link at the bottom of the page.

Bands & musicians wanting to play What's Cookin' - please have a look at the playing at the rattle those pots'n'pans page (coming soon) for more info.

The Birkbeck Tavern 45 Langthorne Road, London, E11 4HL 020 8539 2584 Buses; 58, 69, 97, 158 257, 308, W14 and W15. Tube; Leyton (0.3 miles) Rail; Leytonstone High Road (0.7 miles), Maryland (0.8 miles), Leyton Midland Road (1.1 miles) MAP Look forward to seeing ya there... don't be shy say hello!

Check out what's On The Menu and Past Dishes pages to see who is coming up and who has put on shows in the past. Previous shows have included The Broken Family Band, BJ Cole, Martin Stephenson, Bobby Bare Jr, Jesse Dayton, The Coal Porters, Justin Rutledge, Jason Ringenberg, Daniel Wylie, Damien Jurado, Billy Childish, Simple Kid, Pete Anderson, Corb Lund, Stewboss, Andy White, Holly Golightly, Darren Hayman, The Nightingales, Wilko Johnson, John Power, Black Diamond Heavies, Hank Wangford, Scott H.Biram, Jim Jones Revue, Otis Gibbs, Jackie Leven, The WIYOS, Michael Weston King, Woody Pines, The Answer, The Fabulous Penetrators, Pete Molinari, Paul Burch, Ducks Deluxe, Michael Chapman, William Tyler, Water Tower Bucket Boys...

Jumpin' recorded music from great guest DJ's.

"The ever-hep What's Cookin club", THE GUARDIAN GUIDE. "A fantastic (and cheap) evening...at What's Cookin'" DAVID SMYTH THE EVENING STANDARD. "Weekly and very marvelous bluegrass and country club. After years in the upstairs room of Leytonstone watering hole The Sheepwalk, the reliably excellent What's Cookin' club has moved to this community-minded, real-ale boozer. It continues to pursue its agenda of blues, bluegrass and 'rockin' country-fried music', which often stretches to embrace the more alt.rock/indie end of that spectrum", TIME OUT

Drop a blank e-mail to whatson@whatscookin.co.uk and our friendly auto responder thingy will magically send you our tasty upcoming musical menu. For the full lowdown on What's Cookin', contact Stephen Ferguson on 07904 210218 or email ramblinsteve@whatscookin.co.uk

Check out our cds, the latest is, "what's kickin... vol4", with Vol 5 arriving very soon.

"Over the last few years, in London and doubtless beyond, a few venues have been reviving the spirit of the old folk clubs - and rehabilitating the reputation of pub gigs after years of tribute acts and ageing blues bands - with nights that are intimate, welcoming, run for love not profit and, above all, uproarious fun. What's Cookin' is one such, a labour of love run from a variety of frills-free pubs around the no-nonsense east London suburb of Leytonstone. The music it's dedicated to - country, blues, bluegrass and old-time rock'n'roll - isn't going to grace NME, but it will win the hearts of any doubter who drops in. The "come in for free, pay what you like" ethos hasn't stopped acts like Billy Childish, Damien Jurado, Emily Barker, Pete Molinari, the Singing Adams or the Southern Tenant Folk Union from turning up to deliver shows that are still talked about." JAMES EAGLE - THE MORNING STAR

"They could almost be the soundtrack to my show" MARK LAMARR, GOD'S JUKEBOX RADIO 2