Vic Naylor Restaurant & Bar, 38-40 St John Street, Smithfield, EC1
The Smithfield end of St John Street seems to be dodgily laddish territory in the movies. Vic Naylor is a large and busy bar/restaurant serving up modern Brit cuisine (with a menu changing daily) to a young and pretty lively crowd. It quietened down a bit to become ‘JD’s’, the bar run by Sting in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.
If you find Guy Ritchie’s movies just a little too – well – girlie, you’ll prefer a drink at the offshoot next door, Vic’s Bar, 42 St John Street. Small and minimal, Vic’s is the bar where washed-up soccer ace Danny Meehan (Vinnie Jones) has a little run-in with the law which lands him inside for prison drama Mean Machine. We’re talking serious testosterone territory… in the movies, at least.
A little further toward Smithfield Market, The Gate, 18-20 St John Street is another lively bar, a cool update on the classic polished wood and mirrors look, where Steven Mackintosh meets the mysterious Natasha Little in the opening scene of 1999’s The Criminal.
Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels (1998, dir: Guy Ritchie)
Mean Machine (2001, dir: Barry Skolnick)
The Criminal (1999, dir: Julian Simpson)
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