Tea Time in Wonderland

Posts Tagged ‘cocktail’

This is the place to be to start your week-end. It doesn’t look like much, dark facade, an underground bar @ Covent Garden. Youwouldn’t have stopped, really, were it not for the happy hour, half price! sign. But it’s Friday night and you feel like celebrating in style.

What a surprise – quite a trendy bar, buzzing with Londoners in-the-know and even a DJ.

The cocktail list is mouthwatering. The usuals Dirty Martinis, Chocolate martinis et Espresso martinis are of course to be found. But what a feast to choose from! Hiro and Thyme (blueberries, fesh thyme, schochu, gin, crem de cassis, lemon juice) or the Spicy Melon (Absolut lemon vodka, honey melon, chilli, fresh lemon juice) are to die for. Or would you prefer something with champagne, whisky, sake (the Tokyo Mule with lemongrass is quite a success), vodka, tequila, rum? Ooooh, how to choose?

Watch the barmen – such a dance behing the counter, their hands flying around. It only takes a couple of minutes for your drink to be created in front of you and your camera can’t keep up with the rapidity of this agile ballet… Refreshing, interesting mix od flavours ( I am used to alcohol infused with basil but not thyme), several levels on the tongue…

This is a buzzy and noisy place – to be avoided if you were planning on a quiet and romantic talk… But @ £4 the cocktail for their happy hours? Such a great way to cheer the evening and the week-end ahead!

Dirty Martini
11/12 Russell Street
Covent Garden
London
WC2B 5HZ

Happy Hours: Monday to Thursday: 17.00-21.00 and Friday-Saturday: 12.00-21.00. Plus all night Sunday.

A slightly select address. More romantic, more of a celebration than having a pint @ the local pub.

You’re at the limit with the City, the bankers’ quarters, big names have their headquarters around here. You’ll see people in workins suits and ties.

Booking is mandatory, where you want to dine or just have a glass. Don’t be intimidated by the voice claiming they are fuuly booked. Insist on being put on the waiting list: they called me back whithin 12 hours to take my credit card number and guarantee my reservation (quite common in upmarket places: it forces you to be there on time or at least to have the courtesy to cancel which you might not do @ Pizza Express).

Stepping in the building is already an experience. The web site indicated smart dress- no worry, there’s no need to get your tux or cocktail dress  out. Elegant is more the word – lovely dress, great shirt and trousers, even nice jeans on a Friday night. We could get in without a tie. Avoid trainers though. We get a visitor badge at reception. Then there’s security, bags x-raying, metallic door. No risk taken here. VIP effect – especially if you wanted to impress a friend!

You’ll find a lift dedicated to Vertigo -no stop, it will take you there in 50 seconds. The staff is welcoming, the waiter will propose options, check on you regularly but will not force anything on you. Neither will he raise a brow if you only go for the one drink. Champagne is on the menu but also 5 cocktails, including a delicious litchee belini, a refreshing Kir Royal and a champagne, angustura and cognac that will make your eyes twinkle with happiness.

Wow exclamation also garanteed, even for blase people like me whoo have seen so many cities from towers already, dined in revolving restaurants, walked on glass roofs, even climbed on a 5* hotel roof in Paris to get a better view of the Louvre. Transparent tables follow the wal structure to give you a plunginh view down the city – litterally a carpet at your feet. the view’s great everywhere but do stop after coming in: you’ll see Tower Bridge and the London Eye. You’ll feel like a bird looking at stars below you.

Conversation? Superfluous. You’re hypnotised by the view. A cocktail is £12.50, but gosh, the magic is worth it…

A bit too smart for you to feel comfortable? head for those instead:
- Detroit, ideally placed close to Covent Garden. Galleries with splendid arches. Try the Twinkle: vodka, champagne, elderflower- £6.95
- Calloo Callay, in Shoreditch. Small prices for lunch and dinner, fun deco mixing 70ies with a sense of humour. If you’re coming with friends, order the ‘Mad Hatters Tiki Punchbowl’, served as tradition request in a punch bowl… but on a gramophone! (rum, creme de peche, rhubarb, ginger, lemon, angostura and grapefruit). Count £7-£8.50 for a cocktail.
- Le coq d’argent – terrasse with grass and a view on the City. Excellents cocktails, the best I have had so far. The barman delighted in creating a cocktail based on my mood – a green apple martini. You could have sworn he pressed the fruit in it to get each of the flavours out! I only payed £8.
- Want a very British side… A mar-tea-ni anyone? Served in a teapot, enough for 2. £7.50 at the Cavendish Hotel.

Vertigo 42
Tower 42
25 Old Broad St
London, EC2N 1HQ
Tube: Liverpool st

Since temperatures and leaves alike are falling dramatically, I’ll give up cocktail on the terasse (though it’s the last chance to enjoy the Dusk Bar).
And it sounds like the perfect week-end for it!

- First, put some colours back into our life and ead for Ruscha’s show @ the Hayward. Pop, surrealist, firework like.

- Not to be missed: Damien Hirst @ the Wallace Collection. He finally gave up chain produced circles and got back to his brushes and paintubes. Vibrant works.

- Feel nostalgic with the new 6oies show (Beatles to Bowie) @ the National Portrait Gallery.

- Learn how transport sculpted the suburbs identity at theTransport Museum. The exhibitions should be funny and family-friendly…

- Start Xmas shopping with the Craft fair @ the Somerset House.

- Or forget this commercial world @ the Free Art Fair @ Barbican (you may even win a work of art on Sunday!)

- Enjoy to a poetry marathon @ the Serpentine Gallery (especially as the summer pavillion will be demolished Sunday)

- If the weather really is bad, head for the BFI London film festival!

I had been flooded on Twitter and Facebook with notes about the Icecreamists. They’re opening! The flavours a soooo out of this world! You won’t believe your tastebuds! I read about absinth ice cream, cryogenic cocktails… I really wondered what the Obamama flavour would be like.

Licking my lips, I pocket the VIP invitation for the opening. I get there in advance but people are already getting in. Ah! But nobody’s checking the guest names. A few shoppers join in, try their luck, get in. So much for the VIP effect.

The decoration is entirely back with touches of neon pink. Gothic-Kitsch! An excellent group sings some vintage Prince which makes me think this is going to be heavenly. In a corner stands a customised ice-cream van: black and pink again, the Queen driving, a reference to Banksy. God save the Cream!

I’m given a menu, brought to a table, explained I can ask for samples if I cannot choose. I look at the prices: the Sex Pistols cocktail is at a mere £19…! Gosh, your appetite curbs down immediately. Normal ice-cream portions are at £3.99. You have to pay for the opening party? No indication.

The waitress takes my order. She can’t hear me and I try to scream over the music. My portion arrives in a design glossy black pot. Is lready melting and dripping on the side. Flavour like, it’s quite nice, sorbet like, very soft, very sugary. Not extra-ordinary. I step to the counter, I’m curious abour the bread one. Oh, and the rose too. Oh, and the sex pistols exists as an ice-cream, not just in a cocktail? I wait and wait, being ignored. An exhausted waitress finally telle me, a touch unnerved, that they don’t do samples anymore. She does not propose a second ice-cream either.

End of the game for me. Waitresses do not ask for any feedback. Anyway, they had already given my table to someone else. Noone seems to care about people leaving. We don’t even get a good-bye. That’s an opening party?!

Verdict?
The theory was good. Vice-creams, ice-cream boutique. Molecular ice-creams. It sounded really good. The deco has been worked on.
But prices? You come here to impress a lover, that’s quite an expensive stop for two cocktails…
Ignoring people on your first day is not the best idea either. On that day… they’re your best friends.
The ice creams are good. But… those are all big names hiding, most often, a simple flavour. Obamama? Milk chocolate with a hint of salt. I’d rather have a little name but a big flavour.

In a nutshell: a trendy place -  you come here to be seen, to know the cool places, to have tried the different ice cream, the ones seen in the magazines. I’m not sure what the Sex Pistols would say, but I’d go for the Rolling Stones “I can’t get no satisfaction”.

Want some cool ice-cream?
- For the same price, head for Freggo and try the dulce or even the Malbec and berries… The deco also plays a glamour note.
- Grab a nectarine one @ Gelato Mio (2.50) close to Embankment and sit in the sun in the Embankment gardens…
- Try the kiwi ice-cream at Scoop (£2) then head for Covent Garden…
- Finish with a sesameor chestnut ice-cream (£3.50) @ Feng Sushi after a stroll on South Bank

The Icecreamists
Selfridges
The Ultralounge
400 Oxford St
London, W1A1AB

Tube: Bond St

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Fashion always flirts with time – the shorter the availability, the trendier the object becomes.

Somerset house has teamed up with Bombay Sapphire Blue to lauch a pop-up bat. Tom Dixon was inspired by how the iconic bottles reflects light and wanted to recreate the atmoshere. Hence this large blue rectanlge on the terrace, divides in mini-salons. Very dynamic in shape, it can also change its shape very quickly if needed.

By daylight, I find it very… plastic looking and of little interest. At dusk though, it lights up, changind into a variety of blues and whites. Very soothing, especially as the terrace is at tree top level, hushing the sound of traffic.

Obviously, it’s now cocktail time! Try a Tomtini (£6.95), my favourite: gin, green apple, tea, ginger… The alcool taste is a lovely back note to it, leaving the other falvours to settle nicely instead. Very refreshing. Feeling romantic? Why not go for a Sapphire Rose (£7.25) -dry cherry liqueur, grapefruit juice.  Even the glasses design remind of the famous gin bottle.

Note to parent: the bar also serves mocktails (alcohol free cocktail), fruit juice, sodas. The children can run free on the terrace (beautifully lit at night) – plenty of space, no traffic, ideal. Do cross the Somerset house to have a look at the back yard – Lovely fountains flow from the ground, children can run through them happily. On a sunny week-ends, plenty of kids actually come in their bathing suit! My daughter came back delighted and soaked. Always have a towel and a change of clothes…

Dusk Bar
Somerset House
Strand
London WC2R 1LA

Tube: Temple
Until October 18, 2009