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A first glimpse of the Toucan — its eponymous mascot duo cutely balancing two pints apiece on their beaks — always brings a pang of fear; with so many Sohoites thronging around the front — spilling across the street, even — how in the name of Shane McGowan will you get served?
Fret not; the staff at this authentic Guinness spot have been slinging pints for over three decades, and though you might not get a seat upstairs (they're like gold dust), you will be frothing up your top lip/getting Tayto crumbs down your t shirt within a few minutes.
For us (usually post Soho Theatre) it's all about the downstairs — the lovechild of a Dublin local and a sticky dive bar — which you can sometimes reach by using the little staircase out the front of the pub (file this cheat with your various Tube shortcuts). Turnover is swift, so hang about for five minutes, and you may be able to scrunch yourself into a corner, or score a stool at the bar. You will have people rubbing past you every thirty seconds — that's all part of the show. Except when the weather's so good that everyone vacates the pub altogether, and sunlight-dodging nyctophiles can literally have the whole place to themselves:
Guinness is, naturally, the thing to order, though no one will give you the stink eye for requesting a lager or Irish whiskey. There's also a chalkboard egging you on to try sorcerous concoctions like a Red Witch (Guinness and Pernod and cider) or Black Maria (Guinness and — gulp — Tia Maria), although we've never seen anyone actually order one, so maybe it's just a test.
While we're not in the Muttonista league of detecting subtle nuances in each pint of cookie cutter Guinness, we can safely say that the Toucan's beers are always chilled, well-poured and delicious (unless you don't like Guinness, in which case you will hate this place).
The other reason to come (not that you need one) is to visit the pub from Last Night in Soho. The Edgar Wright's deliciously quirky horror has several key scenes in the pub, which unusually keeps its real-world name on screen.
The nearby Devonshire might be flavour of the moment, but the Toucan's fast-yet-friendly service — devoid of pretension — will make anyone feel at home, whichever nook of this teensy bar you find yourself wedged into.
All images: Londonist
