The clocks have gone back, my central heating’s on – how is it November already? Before I get caught up in all the pre-Christmas (yeah, I mentioned the ‘C’ word) crazy, there’s just time to recap October. It was a big one…
DISCOVERY
If I had to give the month a theme, it would probably be discovery. London Cocktail Week dominated the first part of the month and YES, it is an excuse to drink a lot of very nice cocktails, but also an opportunity to visit a whole stack of new places. Some, like my first stop Quaglinos are veritable institutions. First opening its doors in 1929 (so I’m SERIOUSLY late to this party), it’s had a front row seat to the history of London society, with everyone from The Profumos to Princess Di slinking down its sweeping staircase. If these walls could talk, I’m listening…
70 years later it’s lost none of its looks, it’s still sexy as hell and bang on trend, partnering with buzzy New York Bar Dante for a Negroni-fuelled takeover.
After a debut drop-in at Coya in Mayfair, my next new discovery was Chinatown. Apparently, not just the place you roll up to for drunken dim sum at 3am, it’s home to some of the sexiest secret bars in town. After knocking on the right door for The Experimental Cocktail Club, I stumbled across a random line of people, waited politely (#British) before wandering through another mysterious entrance…
…where I found Peony, one of the bars-within-a-bar inside Opium.
How did it take me so long to uncover these gems that have been right under my nose all this time?!
HIGH LIFE
Not that I’m not glam all year round, but October did bring a couple of opportunities to up the elegance just that little bit more.
First, London Cocktail Week (…again) gave me an excuse to jet-set part way up The Shard for drinks at Aqua on floor 31. I beat out the tourists (don’t test me: my death stare will turn you to stone) for one of the best seats in the house to sip my Negroni – and take in that 40 mile view – in style.
Then a classy dinner date at Michelin-starred Mayfair Indian Gymkhana . Of course, I went straight for their drinks list, choosing from their Gulabi Rani Collection – a selection of curated cocktails telling the story of four women who pioneered, inspired and fought for their causes in India.
But its the food that’s the star Gymkhana. Dishes are designed to be shared, but we still over-ordered from the a la carte menu, then compounded the sin by adding a basket of freshly baked Indian breads we definitely didn’t need (but demolished anyway) on the side. Pick of the dishes? The Duck Dosa was to die for and, paired with a Masala (pink peppercorn gin, hibiscus bitters, pink grapefruit) from the Pink Gin & Tonics menu, I was in foodie heaven.
I could get used to this…
EDUCATION
In between all of the cocktails, I did actually take a little time to check out some of the special events around town staged to celebrate Black History Month. I generally find any of these “X Day”, “X Week”, “X Month” Events problematic – why should we choose only a finite period of time to decide we suddenly care about an issue that we should all be concerned about year round? But on a positive note it does shine a light on the cause and force government, corporations, and the general public to give it their attention.
One of the events I checked out focused on Diversity in Tech and was hosted by the Black@Facebook London Community, a team that definitely takes a 24/7 365 – rather than just an “October” – approach to Diversity. It was a chance to hear from 8 Communities whose goal it is to make the UK the most diverse tech sector in the world. Most of their initiatives were news to me and it was both fascinating and inspiring to hear from such a shit-hot panel of BAME tech-heads and creatives – including Mark Martin of UK Black Tech, Ashley Ainsley of Colorintech and Melanie Eusebe , business strategist and chair of Black British Business Awards – who are there bossing it and driving change.
Black-owned businesses provided opportunities to shop as well as yummy food and drink…too bad I completely spoiled my dinner eating ALL the pick’n’mix on my Facebook Campus Tour.
An evening of true inspiration.
Because I can’t keep away from the cocktails…who says they can’t be educational? I got a chance to visit London’s most bijoux boutique hotel, The Napoleon: 3 bars and just one room? Now that’s a ratio I can work with. While I made plans to move in, I got comfortable in the penthouse (only) suite for The Glasshouse Residency with Bombay Sapphire.
Not sure that the more I drink, the smarter I get, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more seminars and masterclasses.
We should never, ever stop learning.
JOURNEY
This originally started as a travel blog, so I went back to my roots with an event for London Rum Week (yep, there’s a week for everything) at Rum & Sugar in Canary Wharf that had me all nostalgic about my travels through Nicaragua.
From a past journey, to a future one…
October saw the kick-off of my new quest: to explore the recently announced World’s 50 Best Bars 2018 list and attempt to visit as many of them as I can…before they announce the list for 2019. I’ll detail my plan in another post, but for now, I’ve kicked off the adventure right at the top (where else?), with ‘The World’s Best Bar’: Dandelyan on London’s South Bank.
Do my ‘best bar’ criteria match those of the industry experts? It’ll be a hell of an experience finding out. You coming?
Next month: #divawithabartab on tour in BARCELONA
