Stories, Hackney

London Fields' latest bar/ cafe/ gallery/ social hub (origami classes, anyone?) is from the crew behind The Book Club and The Queen of Hoxton - venues synonymous with the sort of  nu-hippies, style bloggers, Guardian-reading geeks, bohos and lazy bozos you can also expect to find here. In fact, the only demographic you'll have trouble locating dahn Broadway Market these days, are the indigenous Cockney sparras flushed out their natural habitat by smug sHabitat-chic colonisers priced out of the leafier parts of Islington.  Brunch, from 10am until mid-afternoon, and bar food that includes wild mushroom and mozzarella arancini, beef and chorizo burger with peppers, pigs in blankets, squid and prawns piri piri (£5), are served in a postmodern space that feels like the canteen / chill-out zone / hot-desking area (or whatever the current buzzword is) at some achingly cool Shoreditch brand agency. Network and bounce around ideas for your new viral ad campaign/ indispensable app over a pint of draught London Fields ale, wine from £4 a glass, or various ‘stories’ cocktails from £6.80. Try ‘sob’ ‘adventure’ (rum, orgeat, apple juice and lime), ‘likely’, ‘shaggy dog’ or for the likely lad on his laptop who claims Google is about to snap up his big idea as the next Tumblr, ‘cock’n’bull (Four Roses bourbon, lemon juice, Cointreau and lemonade)

30 Broadway Market E8 4QJ 7254 6898 http://www.storiesonbroadway.com

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Book Club, Shoreditch

The Book Club is a new hive where Shoreditch creatives - ain’t they all? - convene for a spot of cultural cross-pollination. ‘Play me that Balkan-bhangra-fusion track I adore at Polka Club Presents and I’ll enroll you in my Death Drawing Workshop, dude’. The venue is the latest wheeze from the clever clogs behind the equally happening Queen of Hoxton and its events programme is sure to pull the Ponystep posse. Wonky-fringe ‘ditch bitches rock up for soirées such as  Live Art Battle where, to hip hop anthems, budding Basquiats compete to create a future Saatchi acquisition on giant blank canvases. Of course, all this cultcha’ is a thinly veiled excuse to get ratted which, at the official launch party, we do on cocktails Jolly Roger and Shoreditch Twat - the latter presumably a tribute to the pretentious prat my pal is lusting after through Tiger beer goggles. 'Roger that and you won't feel so jolly tomorrow' I caution, sternly. The joint  was previously Home and tweaks aside, it still feels a lot like Home to me. No bad thing, really. All-day eats are served at what looks like B&Q wallpaper pasting tables and Book Club’s brill beats cover anything from funk to the Fab Four - Paperback Writer, natch.

The Book Club 100 - 106 Leonard St EC2A 7684 8618