We left NY, it was pouring, we arrived in London it was pouring, and a friend who commutes to Paris said it was pouring-talk about 6 degrees of separation!!? How about 1 degree? :)
Through a colleague we got a Fantastic rate on a room in a totally glam hotel, St Martin's Lane. We arrived in the rain to be disappointed with the room as it was so tiny and the bed so dominated it that one of us had to stand flattened against the wall on any side of it to let the other pass. We went downstairs to discuss the style of room promised us-unfortunately for us (fortunately for the hotel) they were booked for the first two nights of our stay but we were first on the upgrade list. So we began making friends-with the charming front desk people and the absolutely marvelous concierges.
My husband hates having plans or reservations our first night anywhere. We took long naps to prevent jet lag. Got up and just went to the hotel restaurant, which was... da ta da... Asia de Cuba. The one in NY has closed, preventing me from having the lobster mashed potatoes-one of the most delicious things in the world! My husband had Cuban BBQ chicken and I had tuna tartare and guess what?? Lobster mashed potatoes!!! We unpacked and watched some TV... We wanted to wander the neighborhood but it was pouring and we were still feeling a bit lazy. We chatted with the concierge and then went into the hotel bar, Light Bar which was really wonderful! We actually went every night! My signature cocktail is a Negroni (a gin based drink) and since gin is such an English spirit, I had my choice of several-from the mainstream Beefeater to the tiny distillery of mashdog and everything in between!
Wed we got up early and actually left the hotel by 11. This is a shocking turn of events that alas would be short-lived. I always love to go to the posh designer street the first day of our trip so that I still have lots of credit left! We saw all my peeps-Chanel, Dior, Burberry's, Prada and my especially close friend of the moment, Yves Saint Laurent. I tried on a magnificent pair of shoes! Very high skinny heel with a hidden platform, the toe cap, back and heel were black leather but the middle, that goes over your food was a grey and black prince of Whales plaid, with a crimson line through the plaid. I fell in love pretty quickly-they were comfortable-light as air in fact, which was quite unexpected. I walked around the store to try to make sure they would stay comfortable and saw the sale clothes. I tried on a gorgeous purple silk blouse, with a scarf attached, to wrap around your neck, forming a silk turtleneck. My husband (a posh shoe buyer, remember) said he could get me the shoes much cheaper so I bought the blouse. Or tried to. The salesperson (who we had made friends with) rang it up but it came up as full price. She knew it was on the sale rack on the floor and in the stock room, she felt terrible. She and I both cried but my husband ushered me out of the store. We then went to Paul Smith for consolation but it was just a men's shoe store (PS is English so there are about 16 different stores in London, each a single classification of piece). My husband bought some very cute shoes-a classic men's oxford but in beat up old leather with purple laces! We then saw the Ted Baker store (where I seem to be doing quite well lately) and I bought a fab jacket, very nipped in at the waist, a silk lining printed with crystal chandeliers, and ultra pointy shoulder pads-terribly GaGa really. We also went to H & M, Zara, TopShop, some independent shops, including a quick side trip to Carnaby St (very swinging!!), and our new favorite store, Uniqlo.
We hadn't arranged any theatre tickets before we left, I usually prefer the theatre of really high end dining... but it is London after all. We had no dinner plans so we went to the 1/2 price ticket windows and bought tickets for Crazy for You. George Gershwin, a bit later than my usual style but still beautifully done-terrific scenery and costumes. Quite enjoyable. Now, I'm a bit sorry we didn't see Lady Killers and/or the previews of Singin' in the Rain (my husband decided that since Gene Kelly wasn't going to be in it, he didn't really want to see it anyway. Everyone around us was hysterical)
Back to the hotel... My husband really wanted the bar food again, so that's what we had. Wagyu beef sliders, fried duck dumplings, steamed butternut squash dumplings and of course our favorite cocktails. And we made friends at the next table, and with the maitre'd!
We woke up for the glorious breakfast in the hotel again. They had a very high end buffet, including a very dry porridge (oatmeal) just like I love it. No milk, fruit, or sugar in it! We went back over to Regent and Oxford Streets, which are a bit like 5th b/t 15th and 20th Streets but much longer streets!! We went to my beloved Zara Home which is NOT in the US. The towels at that store are my absolute favorite-they come in deep richly pigmented colors, look like silk, feel like thick luxurious hotel towels and wash beautifully. And some of them are decorative too! We bought a few, along with napkin rings, napkins, a picture frame, and skull coasters. Every time I ask at Zara Home why they are not in NY, I am told they are looking for sites. It really can't take that long to find an empty stroy in NY. Finally, one smart woman told us it was really because the beds in the US are different sizes than the beds in the EU so all the bessing would have to be made all over again. Too expensive. I get it but that is so terrible frustrating! Then back to the hotel to rest and change for dinner. We also discovered a Poirot marathon on the BBC! Making it rather difficult for me to leave the room.
Dinner than night was GLORIOUS! The Pollen Street Social. We had a little trouble getting a taxi, even with our doorman's help. He offered us the hotel car which we gratefully accepted. The driver, even though I told him the address of the restaurant 10 times, 8 Pollen St he insisted on taking us to Poland St. We refused to get out and insisted he take us to Pollen St, which he finally did (I told the hotel manager the next morning who was appalled and apologetic). The restaurant had heard this tale many times before and has some of the best customer service we have ever had, so was not at all upset that we were 10 minutes late for our reservation. We sat in a charming buzzy place, given menus and bread (in the top 5 pieces of bread from all my restaurant goings). We had a lively cocktail discussion about which gin should be in my Negroni (Old Raj-my absolute favorite), my husband got his favorite caprihinia. He ordered the rib eye which came on its very own cutting board, on which sat pine needles and the steak. He laughed and said he felt like he was camping but with no dirt or nature to contend with. I had smoked eel and parsley soup-the soup having been infused with the aroma of the smoked eel as well. Then artichokes stuffed with 3 different kinds of mushrooms, I had originally ordered the venison carpaccio (one just doesn't get the opportunity to have venison very often) but the beet slaw it came with was soaked in red wine vinegar, which I am allergic to. Everything was magnificent but the dessert was the crowning glory. We only eat chocolate, while I am an adventurous eater, I will not venture away from chocolate. We really are purists. They had 2 chocolate desserts on the menu but each was heavily mixed with something else-cherry liqueur, orange cream...it happened to have been the manager who took our dessert order, or tried to anyway, and he could see the disappointment on or faces. He said, wait, "I'll go talk to the pastry chef". He came back with a perfect solution. They had had a private party earlier that night and had some of the dessert left over-a chocolate sponge cake soaked in Kahlua (rather than cherry liqueur), sitting under dark chocolate mousse, with chocolate ribbons sticking out of it and as an added joy an espresso cup of hot chocolate infused with Kahlua (which was a piece of the other dessert). It was positively incredible. I am always embarrassed to take pictures of food in restaurants (even though these days everyone does) so I rushed through it and it's a bit blurry, but you'll get the idea. :).
The next day my husband felt a bit sleepy so he stayed in bed while I went to the Victoria and Albert (the art and design museum). Sadly, the fashion wing was closed. So I wandered through European art for a little while, until my husband called to say he was leaving the hotel to meet me. I bought a few wonderful fashiony post cards and met him in front of Harvey Nicks (a bit like Saks). We went up to the 5th floor for lunch and loved it. I had an open faced smoked salmon and avocado sandwich and he had a burger. Bacon in the UK seems to be what we call Canadian bacon. I have to find out what our bacon is for them, it might be called streaky bacon. We wandered around the floor after lunch but airport security around bringing food into the country is getting stricter so I didn't want to chance it. Tragically, there was no sale merch left in the store. My husband did add a piece to his skull jewelry collection (though his first piece in gold) and I bought 2 tubes of my favorite Chanel eyeliner that is not available in the US. We wandered around Knightsbridge and into Topshop where we found a gold skull ring for him-a quite worthy stop. We stopped for a while in our favorite coffee shop, Cafe Nero (sadly not in the US either as they have the best hot chocolate in Europe, though maybe it's better that they aren't here).
Back to the hotel. We watched a Poirot episode and then got ready for dinner. We were meeting a good friend and I was really looking forward to it, though the restaurant let us down. Oh well, it was bound to happen at some point, I suppose. It was a small square room with too many tables and no place to wait for our table. Heavy velvet curtains around the door protected the inside from drafts from engulfed the two tables near the door every time it opened. We sat down and a waiter asked if we wanted drinks. I knew what I wanted but was waiting for my friends to decide. He walked away. He came back, took my drink order, which seemed to annoy him, then walked away again. He slammed my drink onto the table and proceeded to tell us about the menu. I stopped him and demanded he take the other drink orders but by this time 2 tables of 12 had sat down in his section-we foresaw problems. He took my husband's drink order but this time before he walked away we demanded he take my friend's order. He realized he was being difficult, he visibly took a deep breath and apologized to us very sincerely and things were slightly better after that. The problem was the restaurant designed its menu for sharing so it brings things out as they ready, which is difficult for us as my husband and I do not like the same things and never share. It was too loud and the waiter was already sloppy in his service so I didn't try to insist that my cold appetizer choices could be held until everyone else's hot dishes were ready. This meant, of course, that I had finished eating my (very lovely) scallop and lobster salad and scallop sashimi before anyone else got her gnocchi, broccoli or his steak and fries-it was very very wierd. We did share chocolate truffles which were ok (too much cocoa powder on the outside overwhelemd the truffle inside). And my friend had a lovely apple tart. We went back to the hotel for cocktails and had an absolutely marvelous time!! Can you believe it-moi drinking 2 cocktails in an evening and not even getting buzzy!!!!?????
The next day we got up for breakfast and enjoyed it, as always, but went back upstairs for a Poirot episode. This was a big mistake as we watched 2 and didn't get to Portobello Road until about 2:30, very very late. We enjoyed the walk and bought a few things. At 5:15 we were ready for lunch but 3 restaurants we tried had closed their kitchens until 6. It's a problem we're finding lately, even in major cities-my husband doesn't like to eat lunch before 3 or 4 and many places close the kitchen from about 2-5 or so. We had paninis at Caffe Nero-anything that gets me that hot chocolate is immediately brought up to a higher plane!!! :). We were now at the other end of Portobello Rd so figured out a different route home from a different tube station-they really make it easy to travel on the subways in London. The maps are so much easier to navigate than in NY.
The original plan was for us to go to the Brick Lane Club which is dinner/cabaret/club and meet a new friend there. She and I had talked about our outfits for WEEKS! I was really looking forward to it and was most definitly planning to stay for the club-even if my husband went back to the hotel. That morning, though, she had a friend crisis and asked if we could make other plans. After much back and forth, I cancelled the reservations and outr miraculous concierge got us into the private dining club at the Ivy!!!!!!
The Ivy would have been a great coup but the private dining is for members only!!!!!! It was encroyable!! We arrived at the bar at about 9 and had a cocktail in the piano bar. My backless dress and my husband's severe pinstripe suit just adding to the joyous feeling that we opened the bar's door to enter 1925. My very favorite feeling in the world!!!! Great bartenders, delish drinks! Then we went up to dinner where we shared the room with beautifully dressed people, including Lady something and an up and coming rapper no one knew. Very fun!! The food was divine, the names for old fashioned Scottish food are simply fabulous. I learned what bashed neeps are!!! Nothing more exciting than mashed turnips. But don't you just want to order venison with bashed neeps??????????????? I decided the time was right to taste smoked haddock as it's on many menus. Magnificent! Like silk, not fishy or dry at all. My husband had fish and chips and the Flintstone size piece of fish placed gently in front of him made us laugh. He pulled off most of the breading and was then able to eat most of it and he said it was "really good" which is his high praise.
As we were leaving we ran into the head doorman who is our concierge's best friend and we talked for a while. It was lovley and so terribly French! Standing in the street at midnight in front of a very posh restaurant bandying about esoteric ideas and the difficulty that jobs are in spending time with friends. Another terrific evening.
Sunday morning, no Poirot just yet so we managed to get out around 12:30ish. Or so I thought. We wasted a lot of time and energy as our friend from Saturday night wanted to meet us for lunch. We said, meet us on Brick Lane and we'll find a place. She just kept insisting that we had to book something. She kept suggesting places. But, she doesn't understand my husband who is the pickiest eater on the face of the planet. Suggesting a restaurant means I have to look up the menu and see if there's anything for him to eat. And NY or maybe I have spoiled him in that now he insists on having 2 things to choose from. We finally decided she would join us for dinner (we changed the reservation) and an hour later than we thought we finally left the hotel for Brick Lane. Ok, not my thing. It was sweet but the market was more about crafts than antiques and the vintage clothes were 60's and 70's and I'm more about the 20's-50's. But it was a nice day. We came home to change for dinner. I, in a berry colred velvet dress and he in his pinstripes with a T-shirt went off to Roka. It was quite marvelous. We had drinks in the lounge downstairs and a lively discussion with the bar tender about gins for my Negroni. it's a Japanese restaurant so they didn't have the small distillery choices but Plymouth is fine. He felt strongly that Tanquery 10 would be much better and since Plymouth is not my favorite I let him convince me. But Tanquery in a Negroni is not the best idea. This is a drink that should be slightly bitter with depth of flavor behind the bitterness, it's made of equal parts gin, Campari, and vermouth. Campari is distilled from citrus but mostly from grapefruit and the gin is supposed to enhance the bitterness, with the vermouth addining a certain balance because it's sweet. Tanqueray just made the whole thing sweet. We went upstairs to our table and looked through the menu-everything sound more delicious than the next. We chose beef/ginger/sesame dumplings, smoked duck, chicken wings on skewers, fried eggplant/miso/pickles, tuna tartare-all with fascinating flavors and presentations. The head waiter came over, we asked questions, gave our order, and just started chatting about restaurants. He's a Parisian who hates Paris but loves NY and London. Let me tell you how much I loved this restaurant conversation!!!! (Except for the hates Paris part and I'm still trying to digest that) The people at the next table joined and somewhere the head waiter left us...but we kept talking... {my husband and I have plans with them for late in March in NY}
Monday, our last day, was a problem. My husband refused to get up before 1 then by the time he got dressed it would be at least 2ish. I had already had breakfast but by 2 I would be screaming for lunch. We went across the street to Browns (we have history there but I'll tell you in another post, it's pretty in there-huge antique mirrors and Bakelite light fixtures. The staff is lovely, the food is fine. The dessert was one of the best things we've had!!! In baking circles, I think, it would considered a failure, but we loved it. It was labeled as a chocolate brownie but it was a thin shapeless mush of DARK chocolate, the weight of the scoop of chocolate ice cream sitting on top of it made that spot disintegrate. All while my husband and I were having one of our very rare fights. I HATED having to stay in the room till 2-what was going on in a city that we get 8 days in only every few years, that I was missing?????????? Why spend the time, money, and energy to get to Europe to just look at the 4 walls of the hotel, or watch TV??????????? We had long ago worked out that I should go wandering myself, which I'm fine with but we were supposed to go to the Tower of London that morning, and he wanted to do that. So I waited. and waited. and waited. By the time lunch was over it was too late to go, it would be closing.
We left the restaurant and wandered The Strand. A very very old street at the edge of theater district which then led us to Covent Garden (which I always think of as the South Street Seaport, which I HATE, but Covent Garden, isn't that. It's more high end). We did love the walk and we went into the Savoy Hotel, one of our great loves in the world. We strolled their museum and ooohed and aaahed. And then, even though we had just eaten lunch, I insisted and my husband indulged me, we went for tea at the Savoy Grill-it was as special as ever. We left and wandered around, into Covent Garden and enjoyed that walk so much. And, I enjoyed figuring out how to get us back to the hotel! We got back about 6:15 and were meeting friends in the bar at 7.
We had a BLAST with them!!!! Gay marriage is legal in the UK (though it is called something other than marriage) and they are engaged and getting married in Sept! I invited us to their wedding for them and we just might go!! Depends on the date...They walked us to our last dinner...we invited them to join us but they had to go back to work... J Sheekey's was warm and cozy, though also too many tables, one woman got up, requiring whole tables to move but that gave me the opportunity to get out of the booth too. So I went to the ladies room with a stranger and made a friend by the time we got back to maneuver into the tables. My husband had fish and chips again, and I had Abroath Smokies with quail eggs (smoked haddock, flaked over purple endive with soft boiled quail eggs). Again, with the names!!!! Then I had a lobster and shrimp burger, which was NICE-you could really taste each flavor. Dessert was quite a disappointment-it was a chocolate cake underneath mousse that the waiter said was chocolate but wasn't. Oh well. We had wonderful cocktails and a wonderful time talking to the head barman.
And simply a wonderful experience and in a vibrant, ancienne, modern, exciting city! I can't wait to go back! (but not till after the Olympics).