Out and about: BRGR.co Soho



About a month or so ago I met up with my usual afternoon tea crew for afternoon tea with a twist - BURGERS!

 

Check out my review here, on Florence Finds: http://www.florencefinds.com/girl-about-town-with-a-boy/



The Afternoon Tea Crew



BRGR.co Soho - boy-friendly afternoon tea!

I'm a Mini Me Maker

It was my gorgeous God Daughter's birthday last week so this weekend we celebrated with fizz and cake.

Of course.

It's also her Baby Bro's birthday next weekend (well coordinated Kim!), so after fizz and cake we celebrated his special day, in advance, with special edition blackberry and elderflower Pimm's and more cake.

Excellent.

For Isabelle's birthday every year I try to think about her presents as much as I do for her mummy and get her something cool, fun, something she wouldn't be expecting and something that's a bit of a treat. But she's getting a bit older now and it's hard to know what to buy for a head-strong, independent, girly-but-not-overly-so girl with some very specific interests. I've bought books, clothes, items that her mummy would appreciate when she was still too little to appreciate a present herself (e.g. the "reading" that Joey "performed" at Emma's first birthday in Friends! We were MASSIVE Friends fans!), fancy dress, toys, DVDs, donations to her future car fund...

This year however I think I excelled myself.

Upon her, I bestowed... myself! I jest, but it wasn't far off.

We all know I love a fifties-style frock, I live for afternoon tea and one of my proudest achievements in recent years is collecting the cutest set of pastel coloured vintage tea sets from which to serve it. It was only when I was wrapping her presents that I realised I had actually bought Isabelle miniature versions of everything I love.

A pastel tea set from Ikea, a fifties-style dress with Paris postcard print from Next and wooden patisserie.

anyone for cake?

I had accidentally attempted to mould Isabelle in to a Mini Me. Her poor parents!

Now, what is also interesting is that what I bought for her Baby Bro, Luke, mirrors one of Mr G's interests... cooking.

I don't go in for gender-stereotype toys, so when someone suggested these amazing food toys, I jumped on them for him. I bought Luke a Melissa and Doug felt sandwich set (complete with a bap, white sliced bread and a pitta, and then all the meat, cheese and salad fillings you can imagine) and a pizza set (with four slices, a pizza pan, cheese, tomato and all the best toppings - no tuna and sweetcorn here!).

I think this year Mr G and I had more fun with the presents than the kids!

Kitsch Clutter: Alessi heart spoons

How cute are these heart spoons by Alessi? Uh, I think the answer you are looking for is SO CUTE!

Wouldn't they work perfectly with my heart bowls? One for cream, one for jam, one for butter and one for my tea cup...

Out and About: Spice Girl Saturday

There's been a running theme of history over the last month or so in my posts. I started January with some sofa-based time travel through my childhood using the medium of old school TV and film, I did some Walking with Dinosaurs, made a trip to the Titanic exhibition in Belfast and wrote about my visit to the Cabinet War Rooms on Florence Finds.

The last three were all a bit grown up and serious, so I needed something a) a bit more upbeat and b)some slightly more recent history - step up The Spice Girls and Viva Forever!

I loved the Spice Girls. Correction, I LOVE the Spice Girls. I've loved them since they first mimed Wannabe on breakfast TV. They provided a soundtrack to my teenage years. They inspired us to dress like divs, dance like mad girls, perform their hits in the school talent shows (prompting rows with rival groups in the playground) and shout "GIRL POWER" as a response to anything and everything. For example:

P.E. Teacher: "Go outside and run cross country"
Me: "NO - and you can't make me, because, well, GIRL POWER!"

Exam board letter: "Dear Ms Hale, You achieved an A in your French GCSE exam... blah... accepted on the A level course... blah"
Me: "Brilliant. GIRL POWER!"

McDonalds drive through operative: "Drive round to the next window please"
Me: "Ok. GIRL POWER!"

They had attitude but weren't bitches. They inspired outfits/hairstyles but weren't fashionable. They were naughty but they weren't bad girls. They wore skimpy outfits but they weren't slutty. They weren't the best singers, the best dancers, the best actresses or the best looking, but in my humble (musically uneducated) opinion they were the original and BEST girl group. They worked hard, put the time and effort in, took control and responsibility, they gave it their all and seemed to have so much fun whilst they were doing it, and most importantly, they did it for the girls, not for the boys. For me they were inspirational role models, and, really, when I look at them as Spice Women, they still are. Oh, and they reformed for London2012 and used black cabs as skateboards. Awesome!
Anyway, I digress. Enough gushing about my love for the Spices, let me tell you how we played homage to them this weekend.

We started out with tickets to the show Viva Forever! purchased by Katy and Claire (the Disney Princesses) as Christmas presents for me and their big sisters (the 2-4-1s) and then we all got over excited when we discovered that Harvey Nichols was serving a Spice Girls-themed afternoon tea in their Season restaurant and Spice Girls-themed champagne cocktails in their Fifth Floor Bar. So we booked in, last minute, to sample both before the theatre.

The afternoon tea started off with mini savoury bites: a cured beef and chutney bagel, an egg and cress roll, smoked salmon on pumpernickel and chicken and chutney roulade in fresh white bread, which we all wolfed down in our excitement to get to the sweet treats: the Sporty Spice cake pop, the Baby Spice mouse (served in a bottle), the Ginger Spice Union Flag lemon and ginger mille feuille, the Scary Spice chilli and chocolate roll (complete with white chocolate leopard print, ahem, decoration) and the Posh Spice Harvey Nics-branded marzipan and Victoria (of course) sponge handbag. There were also the usual scones with jam and clotted cream on the menu too.

You all know how I love a theme, and you all know how I love an afternoon tea, so add in the Spices and I was virtually fizzing with excitement. And then it got better... with cocktails!

We started off with some standard cocktails from the menu (with which we are already familiar, following our cocktail masterclass, back in the summer) and then we worked our way through the themed cocktails, which were delicious. It was difficult to select, but in the end I was happy with my choice of the Scary (Fresh chilli, lychee liqueur topped with Champagne). We spent most of our time talking about our favourite Spice (mine's Victoria - obvs), our favourite songs (mine being Who Do You Think You Are) dance routines (Spice Up Your Life) and generally making a spectacle of ourselves singing, laughing and pinning the bows from our cocktail glasses in our hair (I was grateful for the splash of leopard print against my all-black outfit)!

A few pictures as a group (sadly, no one took Katy's instructions to dress according to the Spice we had been allocated, except for me in black) then we piled in to a cab and made our way to the Piccadilly Theatre.

They clearly saw us (as in a gaggle of giggly, slightly intoxicated girls) coming at the door as we were immediately offered the opportunity to be "upgraded" to the Ambassador Lounge, a small private room with a dedicated waiter to bring us drinks and nibbles before the show and during the interval "for only a small fee". Hmmm. Of course we accepted and it was all pretty exciting as it was the room the Spices themselves had used on visiting the theatre to watch the show. Naturally we acted like complete geeks, singing and dancing around the room, posing for cheesy photos and generally not playing it in the slightest bit cool.

We needn't have worried, about playing it cool because the minute we walked out in to the theatre itself and saw the audience we fitted right in! 98% female, and 100% tipsy the audience, like us, was raring to get stuck in to some Spice Girls singalongs...

We weren't disappointed.

I won't ruin the story, but I will say that it won't be winning any Olivier awards. In the same vein as Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You, the story is just a vehicle for the songs to be introduced and you can see them coming a mile off. But, as a Spice Girls fan, guessing what's coming is one of the best bits!

I'm not a theatre critic so I won't analyse the staging, casting (although there were two stand outs!) or scripting but it has Jennifer Saunders written all over it, which is a good thing in my book. There's more than a hint of Eddie, Patsy and Bubble in amongst the main characters and I swear I heard one of Patsy's Ab Fab lines crop up. If you loved Ab Fab, Ugly Betty, Glee and The Catherine Tate Show you'll love the characters. If you follow(ed) shows like X Factor and Pop Idol you'll recognise parodies of some very prominent characters from  Saturday night TV and you've read Ben Elton's Chart Throb then you'll get the underlying message. Basically, if you read this list and know what I'm wittering on about, then we're on the same wavelength and you'll really enjoy it! I chose not to read the reviews, but I heard that the critics panned it. Clearly they were boring, a bit too serious, old, and male.

Come on. It's not Les Mis, but if you don't expect it to be, you can just appreciate it for what it is, and have fun. Also, when else can you go to the theatre and, during a touching romance scene, put your arms in the air and sing along to 2 Become 1 at the top of your voice or stand up and do the original dance moves along with with cast (and the rest of the audience) to Stop or Spice Up Your Life?

My suggestion? If you don't take yourself or your theatre choices too seriously, and, of course, if you are a Spice Girls fan then get your glittery platforms on, round up your best girls for a some pre-drinks and go see it!

SPICE UP YOUR LIFE!

Read more about the Viva Forever Champagne Cocktails here and the Viva Forever Afternoon Tea here.

Book tickets and find out more about Viva Forever, the show, here.

A pretty good weekend

This weekend I didn't leave the house from Friday night through to Monday morning.

 

I spent the whole weekend inside, in my fluffy slipper boots and various dog jumpers, stuffing my face with finger sandwiches, cake, macaroons, lemon meringue and Christmas cupcakes and miniature fairy cakes, drinking gallons of tea out of super special china, surrounded by loved ones chatting, gossiping and having some long-overdue catch ups.

It was a pretty good weekend!

Afternoon tea for five on Saturday

Afternoon tea for two on Sunday

Buttery, jammy, creamy scones!

Out and about: Pearl at the Chancery Court Hotel

At the end of June my mum celebrated her birthday and seeing as we were long overdue on our regular “god family” catch up we used this as an excuse to get together. We decided against afternoon tea this time, and decided to head somewhere for lunch instead.

In keeping with our penchant for girly venues (check out The Athenaeum, The Soho Hotel and Kensington Roof Gardens and you’ll see what I mean about “girly”) I chose Pearl at the Chancery Court Hotel.

I’d been showed round the newly refurbished hotel rooms and fell head over heels with the understated quirkiness of the styling: love quotes from Shakespeare engraved in the glass dressing table tops, books on lecterns at the end of the corridor with directions to rooms instead of signs and arrows suggesting “rooms 213 – 452 this way à” and each room had a little pewter critter or familiar on a perch outside it, which reminded me of the Dæmons in His Dark Materials. My favourite was the wide-eyed owl, no, the Dodo. Got to love an Alice in Wonderland reference!

Dodo at the door!

corridor directions

Also part of the show round was the Chocolate Afternoon Tea lounge area (which I once used for a corporate seminar, sadly without the chocolate fountains) which I’ll be heading back for someday soon and the girliest restaurant I’ve ever seen: Pearl.

The tables in Pearl are covered in white cloths and under-lit, yes under-lit*, in the centre, decorated with translucent pink vases containing a single pink stem, and surrounded by large, pink translucent (and possibly slightly iridescent) charger plates. It was pink-tastic without being Barbie-tastic or tacky. Well I don’t think it was tacky, but someone must have as I’m pretty sure I saw it on an episode of Footballers’ Wives long ago…

girly pink plates!

underlit, girly pink tables

But let me tell you about the best bit! The best bit are the strings and strings of soft pink pearls and sparkly pink crystals hanging everywhere – from the light fittings, from windows, from purpose-made stands to separate the sofas in the bar to create more of a booth feel. This is where I probably should have told you about the building’s heritage. Originally the banking halls for Pearl Assurance (hence the name), the bar area is large and spacious with high ceilings a long bar and shiny marble, polished glass or glossy wood on every surface, so sectioning the seating in to smaller areas makes it feel slightly more cosy and intimate whilst still being airy and light. Another interesting fact, not on the website, as far as I can see, but mentioned by the employee who showed me around, the Grand Staircase was used in a recent Bond film. It wasn’t clarified which, but I think I’ve spotted it in Quantum of Solace…

The restaurant was apparently also the filming location for Masterchef: The Professionals finale in 2010.

With the restaurant’s name (until you know the history, above), the minimalist styling and all the pearl décor and an executive head chef named Jun Tanaka you’d be forgiven for thinking that the menu would be full of Asian-style dishes. Well you’d be wrong. The menu is French. But not French in the heavy, creamy, calorific way (sorry, France is not my favourite food region!), but in the fresh, delicate and dainty way. In fact, my choices felt rather healthy – which can’t often be said for French cuisine (sadly, otherwise I’d eat LittleParis Kitchen recipes three times a day, EVERY day!).

We chose to opt for the set lunch menu as it’s waaay cheaper than the a la carte alternative, (although they often appear on Bookatable.com with good deals for dinner and a cocktail for a reasonable price) and picked the three course option at a cost of £28.

I chose a starter of veal tongue with tuna mayonnaise (huh? Really? Yes!) which sounded like a ridiculous combination but actually tasted amazing. I was a bit scared about the veal tongue, and tried not to think about it as I ate it (it’s making me shudder now!) but it was tender and melt in the mouth and I soon forgot my offal/unusual-body-part-of-animal aversion.

My starter: veal tongue with tuna mayonnaise

My main dish was roast salmon with lightly spiced lentils pickled carrots and yoghurt dressing. It was delicious. I couldn’t get enough of it. I could have eaten another two portions. The salmon was cooked wonderfully juicy and flavoursome and was perfectly complemented by the hint of spice in the lentils, the tartness carrots and freshness of the yoghurt, all of which added an interesting combination of flavours. It was the kind of dish that warrants the title “simple yet effective”. I want to recreate it in my kitchen at home and eat it every week, and I feel kind of confident that I could, which says something about its simplicity.

My main course: roast salmon

Anyway, a little break, and dessert was on its way. I chose mandarin mousse with white chocolate ice cream. I’m not big on mousse and I’m not big on white chocolate so it was an odd choice for me, but the other option was a hazelnut parfait and I hate nuts! I’m not going to lie, it won’t be going on my Most Amazing Desserts list, and let’s be honest, it’s going to take something pretty special to knock the pineapple tipsy cake off the top spot, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was light, but tasty and hit the spot – you know, that spot that needs hitting with something sweet after a few savoury courses and some wine?

Dessert option 1: mandarin mousse with white chocolate ice cream

Dessert option 2: hazelnut mousse

I want to make mention of the service as well, as the waiters and serving staff were super attentive, helpful, friendly, polite and knowledgeable. No snooty maître d’ here!!

I’d like to head back in the evening or when it’s busier to get a better feel for the atmosphere as it was very quiet when we went in and I do like a bit of buzz in my venues, but for a nice, refined girly lunch being able to chat across a large round table without having to shout was actually rather pleasant! I’d also like to return to check out their chocolate afternoon tea and their lounge bar, which comes complete with a tapas-style buffet. Perfect location for a wintery catch up, with cheese and a glass of red by the fire and chocolate and cake in a squishy sofa… so watch this space!

The afternoon tea buffet - I'll be heading back!

Obviously we rounded off the afternoon with some cocktails in one of my old school Covent Garden haunts, Dirty Martini, before heading home for sofa pyjama snuggles and presents...and a sneaky glass of prosecco... obvs!

*I asked on the show round about the underlit tables and the reason is, that as a listed building the occupiers can’t alter any of the internal structure or permanent décor in specific areas (particularly the old banking halls – now Pearl and the grand staircase), so they can’t add in any more lighting and therefore, under-lit tables were the solution.

Jubilations!

I’ve mentioned before that I love the Royals, specifically the Queen (and Harry, if we're going to get specific), so you can imagine how excited I was when all the Jubilee plans were announced. I was literally ecstatic about the prospect of heading to London to watch boat pageants, Red Arrow fly pasts, balcony appearances and an array of stars perform in front of/on top of Buckingham Palace.

And then I realised that that was also going to be the busiest wedding/birthday/housewarming weekend EVER and so I wouldn’t be doing any of those things.

But I couldn’t let the opportunity to commemorate 60 years of Queenie in charge pass without some kind of celebration, and really it was only cost effective to get all my décor from the Royal Wedding party back out for another airing – pound per use and all that. So I convinced my parents to let me hold a garden party at their pad (because I was homeless, obviously) for some of our nearest and dearest.

I mentioned in my “what on earth to wear…” post that the dress code on the invites was “icons from the last 60 years” or “your patriotic best”, having seen the effort people went to for the Royal Wedding party with hats, fascinators and fancy frocks galore I was excited to see what people wore.

Although I was impressed that most people went the patriotic route (including those not of British heritage), with a sea of eccentric red, white and blue taking over the garden, a few special mentions for the “icons”outfits can’t be missed. We had a Che Guevara (my cousin), a rugby player from before my time (my dad), ‘Gin and Tonic’ (the lovely Laura) and a modern Cilla Black (the wonderful WaceyStyle stylist – Claire).

I had intended to come as something quirky like Pimm’s (brown dress, various fruit accessories) or ‘strawberries and cream’ (red dress with added yellow pips, a fruity fascinator including a stalk and a leaf and a creamy pashmina), but I ran out of time with all my other events outfits to plan.

I went for a fifties-style blue frock from Lindy Bop onAmazon, with red and white sashes (velvet ribbons from Hobbycraft) and puffed up with one of my bridesmaids’ petticoats, a bouffant beehive hairdo (because I didn’t have time to wash my hair before the guests arrived), topped off with a Union Flag oversized bow (from eBay), and some red and white New Look polka dot wedges. Seeing as I’m quite in to my icons I had a few guests guess that I’d dressed up as Minnie Mouse because of the pouffy skirt and polka dots (one of my icon ideas, but I couldn’t find an un-sl*tty verison of the outfit!), Lady Gaga (I assume because of the bow and the hair) and a rockabilly (because of the vintage style frock and hair). Sadly, it was none of the above, it was just a red, white and blue concoction which was the best I could do in the circumstances!

my patriotic best

Che

Gin and Tonic drinking gin cocktails

 

recreating our pose from the Royal Wedding party

Kate and Wills popped in

 

a sporting hero

Meeting the Queen

Celebrating a newly acquired British citizenship and a "Baby Brit on Board"

Finger on the pulse

Red, white and blue Jubilee Princess!

Brit babes!

some great efforts

Anyway, I got up at 6am to start Operation Jubilee Party and the whole family pitched in to help get afternoon tea ready for our 50 or so guests. We made a great team.

I was on sandwich making and cakes and scones set up duties, my mum was on evening buffet creation, cheese and pineapple flag spearing and mixing up sandwich filling duties, Mr G was on bunting, patriotic pom pom and flag décor duties and then helped my dad out with his occasional table, garden seating and marquee set up duties. Some family members arrived early and took over on the whipping of cream and decanting of jam which was good as it meant I had 30 minutes to spare to get showered, made up and create some kind of outfit before non-family guests arrived…

Patriotic pom poms

Cute vintage bunting...

...and some more traditional flags!

…and from then on it was Pimm’s and real ale on tap (from my newly acquired 12 litre drink dispenser – it was re-filled three times. That’s a lot of Pimm’s - and a barrel of beer on the BBQ), prosecco and English Hedgerow cocktails in vintage tea cups, afternoon tea (including what turned out to be tipsy cocktail cupcakes*), retro party snacks, cheesy British classics (Match of the Day and The Archers theme tunes anyone?) mixed in with some vintage songs and general British garden party activity, ie drinking, eating, chatting, sitting, laughing, “cheers”ing and looking at the sky worrying about rain/being thankful that it’s not raining!

When everyone was truly afternoon tea-d out, we pulled out the chilli, jacket potatoes, salad, cheese board, pizza and quiche and let people get stuck in to the evening buffet with a few more drinks before people started to drift off home, covered in flags and Union Jack regalia!

All in all I feel like we had a rather refined but fun-filled day, garden partying in homage to Queenie’s big day. By 11pm we were mostly tidied up, I was in my pyjamas with a cuppa, I managed to sample some of the leftover food and finally got to sit down and watch some of the Jubilee concert. And I didn’t get out of my pyjamas until Wednesday, when I had to put something more suitable on for work!

Being the hosts and hostesses with the most/mostesses is hard work but jolly good fun, what what, especially after such a fun-packed (i.e. drunken) weekend. Now… you think I can go for a third and fourth outing of the Union Jack décor for the Olympics opening/closing parties?

Even better – by then I might actually have a house to host it in. Fingers crossed…

Royal waves

x

Chillaxing on Tuesday

Look who we found in the Jubilee weekend papers...

*the lovely ladies that made the cute mini cupcakes came rushing up the garden on seeing some of the kids stuffing their faces with the chocolate versions. A quiet word that perhaps the children might like to stick to the chocolate cakes as the others were slightly, erm, alcoholic (Baileys or mojito icing on the vanilla ones and Limoncello in the lemon ones. Oh my deliciousness!) and a potential crisis was averted. Although… a few Baileys cupcakes before bed might have seen a few lie ins for the parents on Tuesday morning… just sayin’ tee hee!