There comes a point as autumn seeps into winter when going out starts to feel like an act of bravery. The evenings are darker, the trees reduced to thinly etched branches against a navy-blue velvet sky and the sofa provides an increasingly convincing reason to stay at home. What you really want is to hibernate. But what if a hibernation of sorts could happen somewhere better than your sofa?
In De Beauvoir, three little destinations belonging to the Ltd Ltd group make a persuasive case for it. Goodbye Horses, The Dreamery and Stable Wines sit within minutes of one another, offering a kind of autumnal crawl for those who want to go out without sacrificing the comforting, cocooning pleasures of staying in. Here, evenings are about settling in, lifting spirits, filling glasses and stomachs, as it gets darker even earlier outside.
Begin at Goodbye Horses, the group's wine bar on Halliford Street, which opened in 2024 in a former Victorian pub. It has the reassuring feeling of a neighbourhood local with high ceilings, a long bar, tables filled with groups of friends and couples on dates, but feels softer and more considered than your average pub. There is no macho pub ambience – instead, ice buckets of natural wine cascade on the counter and the shelves are crammed with vinyl. The music is intrinsic to the evening: on my visit, George Michael's Faith drops onto the turntable and, for a moment, the entire room seems to collectively smile.
It is a room designed for the darker months with whimsical, hand-painted murals by artist Lucy Stein stretching above the length of the bar, and painted sheer curtains that catch the last of the dissolving autumn light outside. As nightfall descends, the glow becomes warmer, the room lit by flickering flames. The effect is atmospheric and alluring, and you will happily settling in for an entire evening, as long as another glass of orange wine on its way.
In the same way that the room feels like a pub reimagined, bringing magic to everyday life, the food follows the same philosophy. Head chef Jack Coggins serves dishes that provide the consolation of pub food but updated with an intriguing flavour palette. From oysters with horseradish and grape to mussels with miso and mushroom, from duck scrumpet to cheese toasties, the menu is deliberately approachable, built around the idea of eating and snacking rather than solemnly dining. With food that has earned a Bib Gourmand from Michelin, an expansive wine selection and incandescent ambience, Goodbye Horses is an optimal location to let an autumn evening unfold.
Then, when you have reached the point in the evening when dessert is urgently required, cross the road to The Dreamery. From the outside, its small square façade looks like an illuminated chocolate box. Inside, it is a 12-seater dreamscape of natural wine and artisanal ice cream, with a fantastical, hand-painted ceiling (again, by Lucy Stein) above you. The flavours change with the season, from fig leaf to Galia melon and elderflower, all served in silver coupes rather than cones. It feels slightly otherworldly, which is exactly what makes it so much fun.
There is something especially appealing about The Dreamery in autumn, the childish pleasure of an ice cream transformed into something more grown-up and less summery – it seems is the perfect match to an evening of wine and candlelight. The tiny room that provides uncomplicated joy, which feels particularly precious in adulthood. You may feel the urge to linger, however, there is one more destination that awaits.
Walk a little further and you will find Stable Wines glowing above ground, a small, almost spherical bottle shop with a staircase that leads into a candlelit former bank vault. A subterranean room, a wine cellar, a grotto, it makes an exceptionally stylish place to hide from the weather.
Leopold Banchini, the Swiss architect behind the space, has made much of the materiality: an oak counter embedded with hand-carved volcanic stone from Mount Etna sits beneath a mural-like Isamu Noguchi rice-paper lamp, painted with folkloric characters (by artist Lucy Stein, of course). Downstairs, the vault's ironwork and arched stone walls remain part of the bones of the building with four vintage speakers providing the soundtrack.
But again, it is the ambience and people you meet that bring the space to life. There is no printed wine list, instead, the team talk you through the cellar and find something suited to whatever you feel like drinking. With a glass of Beaujolais and Comté with chilli jam, you can tuck yourself beneath the arches as your evening draws to a close.
It could be argued that the Ltd Ltd group have provided the answer to what autumnal dining out should be. Not loud rooms or grand itineraries, but places that encourage you to retreat with your favourite people.
Goodbye Horses, The Dreamery and Stable Wines offer three different versions of the same fantasy – wine, food, ice cream, music, candlelight and somewhere cosy to disappear into as the nights draw in. Visit one and linger – or make it a three-stop crawl. Hibernation, it turns out, doesn't necessarily mean staying home. Sometimes it just means finding somewhere that feels like it.
